The Bracken Affair
by degunther
Summary: The Bracken Affair It is said that Revenge is a dish best served cold. Senator Bracken has been imprisoned for the murder of Kate's mother and is out of the Castles' life forever, or is he? While investigating a case of espionage, the Castles must deal with ex-Senator Bracken's plot to humiliate and destroy Beckett.


**The Bracken Affair **

It is said that Revenge is a dish best served cold. Senator Bracken has been imprisoned for the murder of Kate's mother and is out of the Castles' life forever, or is he? While investigating a case of espionage, the Castles must deal with ex-Senator Bracken's plot to humiliate and destroy Beckett.

This story uses characters introduced in 'The Finally Married Affair', and a cameo appearance by Kate and Karl.

**Preamble – Revenge is a dish best served cold **

Two Years Ago

Bracken looked around the courtroom and the smug look on Castle's face really pissed him off. Later as he watched Beckett testify he couldn't help but notice how often she looked over at Castle, how much strength she seemed to draw from him. Payback will be hell and complete he vowed.

Dispute the best lawyers' money could buy, the verdict wasn't in doubt. Sentencing, on the other hand was a different matter. The length of the sentence was appropriate, but the choice of the facility disappointed the Team. Instead of Sing-Sing, Bracken got the minimum security Lincoln Correctional Facility in New York City. A country club with a curfew, Esposito had called it and Kate thought he was right. It should have been a reminder of just how much power and influence the Senator still had. In the euphoria of the verdict and the overriding sense of accomplishment and closure Kate and Castle missed the point completely.

30 Days Ago

David Keystone in addition to being Senator Bracken's childhood friend and fellow classmate in law school was a lawyer in the firm that had represented Senator Bracken at his trail. Despite having only one client, Senator Bracken, David was a full partner in the firm. He was the firm's 'Fixer'. The man you went to if you needed help cutting a deal. He was the man who could find out anything about anybody. He could make small problems disappear, and turn major ones into something the firm, and the client, could handle. If you needed some leverage, talk to David Keystone. If he advised cutting and running, you cut and ran. Over the years he had made himself rich, indispensable, and equal parts feared and respected.

As the Senator's career progressed he reached out to his childhood friend to take care of things that he didn't want his staff to know about. The relationship was mutually beneficial. As the Senator grew in power and prestige he made sure that his friend was introduced to the 'right' people. Over the years Mr. Keystone's contacts and reputation as a 'Fixer' grew.

Ever since the Senator had become a guest of the facility, Mr. Keystone had come to visit on Friday afternoon. Normally he arrived at three-thirty, he and the Senator talked privately for a while, and then they played bridge with another pair of 'guests' until dinner call at six-thirty. Today was no exception.

"Afternoon Sir," said Officer Mitchell, "You know the drill, everything not directly related to your client's case stays here."

"Sure thing Mike," said David Keystone, "Just the usual, keys pocket knife, and phone. How are the Grandkids?"

"Growing like weeds. Hockey season already?"

Keystone looked like a hockey player who became a lawyer. He was a tad over six-feet and a solid two-hundred and five pounds. His movements still showed the power and fluidity of the athlete he had once been. His glasses and salt and pepper were the only indications that he was fifty plus. He had replaced his normal club tie with a New York Rangers tie. Otherwise he was in his normal 'lawyers' uniform, a conservative styled excellently tailored light blue pinstripe suit, handmade pale yellow shirt and black shoes polished to a high gloss.

"Yeah, puck drop's for real next Wednesday. They went to the finals last year. I'm hoping they can go all the way this year."

"You played didn't you?"

"Till I started Law School, I still miss it."

"You're clear Sir. I'm sure you'll find the Senator in his normal place."

Former Senator William H. Bracken was standing and looking out of the window when Dave entered the private conference room. To Dave's eye his friend looked a little slimmer, and a little grimmer but otherwise fine. The way they figured it he had just less than eight years left. People in this facility usually got out when they were eligible for parole. "Looking good Bill, I must say I still don't like orange."

"Me neither," replied the Senator as he offered his hand to his friend. "How's the new season look?"

"We're going to crush the opposition. The game starts for real next month and gets nastier as we progress."

"I want Beckett dead, but I want her to lose everything she loves first. I want her defeated and broken and every last thing she loves and holds dear ripped from her, "snarled Bracken. " Then I want her dead. She robbed me of my freedom and shattered my dream of becoming President. I want her to know nothing but pain and suffering, "he railed. "Any problems?"

"We've planned this for over a year. I've had time to find the string to pull on the 'right' people. When were done she'll be broken alright and nothing will traceable back to us. I must admit having the super PAC fund available certainly made my job easier."  
"Just out of curiosity, how much did you use?"

"I've not even touched the principle," he laughed.

"Good, after we've destroyed Beckett we need to find a way to make the money available without drawing suspicion. I plan on enjoying my rehabilitated life."

"I know some people," Dave replied with a laugh. "Are we playing the same pigeons this afternoon?"

"Yeah and they want to raise the stakes to a dollar a point."

"Good"

**Chapter 1 There are Errands and Knights Errant**

Present Day

"That's my boy," said Castle gently holding his son and patting him on the back. "Let's get that nasty air out of your tummy and give Daddy a .."

"Burppppp…"

"You do that so well," added Kate in her soft musical voice. Her eyes and heart full of love for the both of them.

"Kate I don't understand why you need me to run these errands for you. I mean if it's a body image problem, trust me you don't have a problem. I mean I am your husband and you may perceive my opinion as biased but Kate you look …."said Castle as he leaned in and kissed his wife's cheek.

"It's complicated."

"Complicated was the word I used to describe our relationship before we started dating. It is not a word I would use to describe going to the 12th to clean out your gym locker and pick up a new set of NYPD directives."

"It's still complicated."

"Okay, but let me prove the other point. Let me take you out to dinner, and I don't mean the 'Golden Dragon.' You haven't let me take you out to a nice place since James was born. I married Kate Beckett not a mushroom,' said Castle with a touch of exasperation. "Anything else you need me to pick up while I'm out?"

"Diapers and ah …ah ice cream. Come here sweetie," said Kate as she reached out for Alexander. "My bag is on the chair in the bedroom. Oh by the way absolutely no sharing of baby photos. That's my job! While you're out I'll probably ask Mrs. Gardener to come up while I go take a swim," Kate announced 'and attend the seminar' she thought to herself.

The Castles were surprised when Mrs. Gardener, their neighbor from three floors down, answered their ad for a Nanny. 'I'm your neighbor,' she said during her interview, 'I'm also a Grandmother and a Registered Nurse. I don't need the money to live, but it will help me spoil my grandkids.' The deal maker was when she said, 'I know what you do for a living, so it won't take me long to come upstairs when you get a call at two-thirty in the morning.' The only kicker was that she needed dedicated downtime for the volunteer work she did to maintain her certification as a registered nurse.

Castle took a quick shower and changed into clothes that didn't smell like…baby. On his way out he picked up Kate's bag and headed toward the sound of her voice. She was sitting in her favorite chair with her legs tucked up underneath. 'I don't know how she can sit that way,' thought Castle. Lightly wrapped and in the crook of her left arm was James and Kate was reading to him from her e-reader in the singsong voice mothers use with their children. The story it sounded … familiar.

"You're reading 'The Hobbit'" exclaimed Castle.

Kate watched Jim's eyes snap open at the sound of Castle's voice. "I almost had him," said Kate without heat. "He likes it, and it gives me an excuse to read it again."

"You're going to turn him into a fantasy action junkie," chuckled Castle as he kissed both his wife and son goodbye.

Kate heard James give a little whimper as Castle walked away and out of the Loft. "Don't worry my little Tiger he'll be back," she said. " He will always come back to us…. You have some big shoes to fill, trying to live up to your dad, but you'll do just fine. We'll help of course. But how you fill his shoes is entirely up to you. Your big sis is doing fine and so will you. Now where were we?" As she started again, Kate looked over at James, his eyes drooping as the Sandman was approaching. She didn't know if the smile on his face was for her, the story, or caused by gas. She didn't care. She would cherish the memory forever.

Once Kate had settled James in his crib for his nap she called Mrs. Gardener. After packing her backpack for the gym she glanced at her reflection in the bedroom mirror. 'Castle's right,' she concluded 'I do need to get out of the house, and not just to the gym or to work, but I need to re-join the world.' Fishing her phone out of her pocket she dialed a number from memory.

"Mad's it's Kate. I need a favor, a table….Nothing tonight, how about tomorrow? ... Great…No I'm not bringing James to Q3," she laughed. " At least not until I can teach him table manners…. Of course I'll bring pictures. … Menu? … I'm not going to tell your Chef what to cook for us. I think it would piss her off. … Thanks again Mads."

Kate thought for a moment, touched her hair, made a mental calculation, and made another phone call. Kate confirmed her hair appointment just as Mrs. Gardener let herself into the Loft.

"Kate," she called out. Mrs. Gardener had just turned fifty. She was a couple of inches shorter than Kate, but still maintained a shapely figure. Her medium length brown hair, which she made no attempt to color, was liberally streaked with gray. Her intelligent brown eyes didn't seem to miss a thing. She projected a calm, been there, done that attitude and Kate had no doubt that she had.

As the Castle's had done their due diligence they had discovered that Mrs. Gardener was a widow, a mother of four and currently had two grandkids and another one was on the way. Both her and her husband had been military, U.S. Marines. She had been a nurse and retired with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel soon after her husband had died in a training accident. With his death she had returned to the city of her birth.

"Glad you could come up on such short notice."

"None of that now. You guys are paying me to be a full time Nanny and I've yet to put in a full day's work."

"That will probably change soon. I'm going back to work on Monday."

"Good. Ready?"

"Yeah, I love Rick and James, but…"

"You need to serve. I understand."

Kate looked into her eyes. 'Yeah, she probably did understand.' "Castle's running errands and will probably be back around two, and I'll be back around three-thirty. I'm going to get some exercise then attend a seminar at the Natural History Museum. We have our cells and our numbers are…

"Preprogrammed on the cell on the charger in Mr. Castles office. Yours is number one and Castle's number two. Relax Kate. I'll treat James just like my own son, and I've got three full grown and out in the world."

"Amy, do you ever stop worrying?"

"Never," she admitted.

"One other thing. You free Sunday night?"

"You finally letting him take you to dinner?"

"Yes, How?"

"Mothers develop super-hearing. Don't worry yours will come in anytime now and I heard you make an appointment to have your hair done. You don't make a hair appointment to visit a crime scene. … Sure what time?"

"Five-thirty to nine-thirty? My crystal ball says there is a carriage ride in my future," Kate smiled.

"Fine," she chuckled, "now scoot before you make yourself late."

**Chapter 2 Welcome back – Castle?**

The scene at the lobby of the 12th brought a smile to Castle's face. It had been over six weeks since Castle and Kate had last been here and the controlled chaos of this section of the precinct open to the public and things hadn't changed a bit.

"Hey Castle, what brings you down here," asked Sergeant McHenry, the Desk Sergeant.

"Kate sent me, Sergeant McHenry. Clean clothes for her gym locker and something about a new set of directives."

"How are Kate and your little one doing?"

"They're doing fine. Kate will be back on the job on Monday so you can ask her yourself. "

"Go on you know the way, and warn Beckett she better bring pictures!"

"Trust me Sergeant," chuckled Castle as he made his way toward the elevator, "That won't be a problem."

As Castle made his way deeper into the precinct and away from the public areas he met a lot of old friends and a lot well wishes for Kate. He was on autopilot and came to a crashing halt as he was about to open the door to the woman's locker room.

'Kate how am I supposed to do this,' Castle mumbled. Nodding he went to the janitorial closet, and pulled out the 'Closed for Cleaning' sign and headed back to the locker room.

After pushing open the locker room door he called out, "Ahoy the locker room. Anybody in here?"

"Yeah, that you Castle?"

"It's me. Hastings?"

"Yeah. What do you need?"

"Kate wants me to get her clothes out of her locker. I guess we both forget I'm a …"

"Not a gal."

"Yeah."

"Give me a minute."

Minutes later an amused Hastings showed up at the door collected the key to Kate's locker and her bag. "I packed up everything," said a chuckling Hastings. "Perhaps I should have kept my mouth shut and surprised you."

"I would have jumped out of my skin and then Kate would have killed me."

"My guy would not have been amused either. How's Kate."

"Great and chopping at the bit to get back to work actually. She'll be back on Monday."

As Castle got off of the elevator the welcome buzz of the bullpen greeted his ears. 'If it's like this for me,' he thought, 'I can't imagine what it's like for Kate.' Neither Ryan nor Esposito were at their desk, but the murder board showed signs of an active case. 'A domestic assault,' thought Castle as he worked his way across the board.

"There's a stranger," quipped Ryan.

"Hey guys, yours," said Castle nodding toward the murder board.

"Yeah, we just took his statement. Let us finish up and you …."

"Mr. Castle," said a commanding voice. "I sure hope this visit means you brought baby pictures."

"Sorry Sir," said Castle turning to face Captain Gates. "Beckett made it abundantly clear that showing baby pictures to the people in the 12th was her prerogative. I think her exact words were 'If I showed so much as a single baby picture I would envy the sex life of a celibate Buddhist monk.' Threats like that I tend to take seriously."

"She's due back on Monday; I guess I can wait till then. How's she doing?"

"Bored with sitting around the house, she can't wait to get back to work."

"As I was saying," said Esposito, "We'll get you a copy of the new directives to read as we finish up. Afterwards you can take us to lunch and we'll tell you about the case the feds stole from us."

"Deal."

Castle had just finished reading the new directives when Captain Gates approached. "Your opinion Mr. Castle."

"Things like these are normally written after the horse has left the barn," remarked Castle and the small upturn of Captain's Gates lips confirmed his suspicions. "So how bad was the hack?"

"Breached the first firewall. Nothing critical was compromised, but still one hell of a wakeup call."

"Were they trying to extract or make a deposit?"

"Why would they… Oh … I don't know. I'm not sure the IT guys checked."

"Was anyone hurt when the idiot blew your operational security?"

"No. The incident occurred in the Bronx at the 57th, but they lost over two years of undercover work. "

Castle winced at the tone of the Captain's voice. Now for the sixty-four thousand dollar question, "Are you going to use the last new directive to kick me to the curb?"

"No," said the Captain with a degree of finality. "It's no secret that I dislike the idea of someone in my precinct that is not under my operational command. It's also no secret that we 'don't get along.' But… but, you've proven useful on numerous occasions. And you've never compromised a case. .. So…"

"Status quo… As long as I can pull my own weight and not embarrass the Department I can hang around?"

"Glad you understand."

Esposito and Ryan exchanged looks of relief. They had listened to the last exchange between their Captain and their friend. They were concerned that the new directive prohibiting non-law enforcement personnel access to current cases would mean the end of Castle's presence in the precinct. "Ready Castle? Your treat right," asked Esposito as he shrugged into his jacket?

"Sure, where we going?"

"Charles," suggested Ryan?

'Charles' wasn't a place, it was a person and his hot dogs were arguably the best in the city. His stand was on the fountain square about four blocks away from the precinct. His cliental were as diverse as the residents of New York City and as loyal as the most rabid Yankees fan.

"Sure," said Castle as he placed the copy of the written directives in Kate's center desk drawer and a CD containing them into her bag. "It's a glorious day outside and I haven't had good hot dog in a long time."

"We caught the case on Tuesday morning," began Ryan as they sat on a bench eating their lunch. "It was a double homicide."

"Triple," quipped Esposito "If you count the cab, and in your neighborhood too bro, maybe three or four blocks from the Loft."

"We figure it was a team of at least two maybe more," said Ryan.

"Well planned and executed," added Esposito with a touch of admiration in his voice. "One of the team-members put a 30-06 round through the engine block and stopped the cab in a video surveillance dead zone, and a couple of seconds after that he put a round through the driver."

"The guy on the ground walked up to the cab opened the passenger door and emptied all seven rounds of the .50 Desert Eagle into the torso of the victim," added Ryan. "Witnesses remember the killer was wearing modern military camouflage and the pocket cannon but nothing else."

"That is entirely understandable," said Castle.

"And that's about as far as we got," said Esposito." A couple of minutes after that the FBI showed up and took the case. Captain Gates confirmed it a minute after that."

"Any idea why?"

"Maybe because the passenger was Australian," said Ryan.

All eyes were drawn to the street as three black SUV's screeched to a halt near Charles's stand. "Apparently even the sunglasses and white shirt crowd enjoy a good hot dog," quipped Castle.

"Espo aren't those the same guys who…?"

"Your right bro. I wonder what they want," confirmed Esposito as they watched a team of four agents approach.

"Mr. Castle I'm Special Agent Rhodes and this Special Agent Jones. We need you to come with us."

"Where and why?"

"Downtown to our Field Office, and I'm not at liberty to say in an open environment."

Castle finished his hot dog and washed it down with the last of his water. As he got up and walked toward the trash can he was immediately surrounded. "Guys could you?"

"Yeah, we'll tell the Captain and Kate."

"Trouble magnet," muttered Ryan reaching for his phone as he and Esposito watched their friend being lead off by the FBI.

"At least he paid for lunch," quipped Esposito with a small smile. "And nobody's shooting at him."

None of the four agents surrounding Castle, or the three agents guarding the vehicles or the two NYPD Detectives noticed a business woman taking pictures of the scene as she sat eating her hot dog and drinking her water. Before the car door had closed on Castle she had the phone to her ear.

"Boss the FBI just snatched Castle."

"Dumb shits, "said the voice on the phone. "Okay Contingency C. Activate Kate. We need Detective Beckett in the game. I'll have Tom pick her up and brief her. We'll stay in our Gramercy Park safe houses for the time being. The FBI will be pissed," she laughed, "When we commandeer one of their surge areas to operate out of."

"On it boss. Do you think he knows anything?"

"He's not involved. I'm sure of that. Just as I'm sure that he and Kate will help us get to the bottom of this just like they did in the past."

"Roger that," said the business women as she broke the connection and watched the FBI SUV's speed away. 'It will be good to have Castle and Kate part of the Team again,' she thought as she dialed Kate's cell number.

**Chapter 3 Kate**

Kate rushed from the pool downtown to Meeting Room A in the Natural History Museum. It's funny how the simplest things can inspire Castle's stories, thought Kate. When he read about the Museum featuring exhibits from their sister museum in Australia he thought that could be a great background for a Nikki Heat story. They had been to the exhibit several times and Castle had ordered extensive background materials. During her maternity leave Kate picked up one of the books and immediately became fascinated with 'Dreamtime'. The more she read the more she was convinced that her connection to the other 'Kate' was related to 'Dreamtime.'

Today she was attending a lecture by Dr. Samuel Awarra, an aboriginal tribal leader. Dr. Awarra was maybe five six and maybe a hundred five pounds soaking wet. His skin was coal black, and what Kate could tell his eyes were dark brown and projected wisdom. His body language radiated calm and suggested he was at peace with himself. The bio said he was in his late sixties. Kate would not have placed his age over thirty-five.

The room easily sat five-hundred and had the standard podium in front and high back uncomfortable chairs for the attendees. There were maybe twenty people in the first three rows. Professional attenders, Castle had called them, retired people with nothing better to do. Midway back on the left side was a school teacher and her assistant were trying to ride herd on a middle school class. A smattering of college students and a couple of museum guides made up the rest of the crowd, all in all a sparse turn-out for the speaker. Admit it Kate, she told herself if it weren't for the other 'Kate' you would be here either.

Dr. Awarra combined his 'Dreamtime' presentation with the history of the Aboriginal people in Australia, which Kate remembered from her reading was in excess of 40,000 years. After the first five minutes Kate was convinced that Samuel was talking to her. After the polite applause and a few questions and answers, Kate was packing up to go when Dr. Awarra appeared in front of her.

"Tell me about your Dream child," he asked in a soft commanding voice. To Kate's great surprise, she did.

"You are indeed blessed to have such a link with your ancestor."

"She's not my ancestor," said Kate out of reflex. "Oh," she continued when the lesson on spiritual ancestors, separate from physical ancestors registered in her mind.

"Do you ask your Kate for guidance?"

"No."

"Good. Most who try fail miserably. They let their own desires color the answer."

"I can see that," replied Kate softly.

"Besides the warning, do you 'send' other things to Kate?"

"Sometimes," Kate said softly, "Sometimes after Castle, my husband, and I have made love and he has me wrapped up in his arms and I feel safe, secure and …"

"Loved"

"Yeah, right before I go to sleep, I try to send our love to her."

"Is it ever returned?"

"Yes," Kate said with a smile.

"You are indeed blessed to have such a link with your ancestor…. There are three things you must do. This may be hard for your western trained mind, but you need to accept the link as being as natural as your right hand. If you try to analyze it, it could disappear. Second your ancestor is not an oracle, don't ask her for advice. Lastly do not grow dependent on it for your safety. "

"Just because Kate hasn't warned me doesn't mean we aren't in danger. That lesson I already know Doctor. Any idea how the link formed?"

"No, You?"

"I think Kate loves Karl as much as I love Castle. Each of us has faced life or death situations and was willing to sacrifice everything to save our life's companion."

"A link based upon love and sacrifice, that's as good a reason as any."

"Castle doesn't share a link with his counterpart."

"Castle may be Dream blind, but don't mourn for him. He has you to protect him, and I think he sees in areas where you are blind."

When Dr. Awarra mentioned Castle's name Kate shivered. "You need to answer that," he said as Kate's phone rang. "Castle is all right, but he needs your help."

"Kate I don't know if you remember me," said the voice on the phone, " I'm …"

"Susan Barnes, I think. We met almost two years ago."

"Yes..."

"Castle?"

"He's safe. Probably pissed, but safe. He got picked up by the FBI for questioning. Look how soon can Detective Beckett be in the lobby of her Loft?"

"Forty-five minutes to an hour, but Castle…"

"Kelly will have someone you know and trust meet you in front of the Loft and he will accompany you down to the FBI's New York Field Office. She is already on her way down there. To say she was angry would be an understatement. Don't worry once she's there she will take control of the situation and Castle will be under her protection."

Kate hurried home and after explaining the situation to Amy rushed into the bedroom to change. After donning the familiar weight of her weapon in the shoulder harness and the badge on a chain over her neck she regarded her reflection in the mirror. It told her what she already knew. She needed to be more than a wife to Castle and a Mother to James. She needed to help people. Maybe not as a Cop, maybe as…. Kate shuttered the speculation on her future path to concentrate on the moment.

As she rounded the corner from the elevator to the lobby Kate spotted a very familiar face talking with her doorman, Marshal Dillon. "Hey Marshal, I take it I'm part of your pose," Kate said in her best southern voice.

"Yep, pretty lady," he replied in his best Texas drawl "you are. All kidding aside being married to that big lug of yours does appear to agree with you."

Kate nodded in response to the compliment. "Castle?"

"After the air strike, artillery barrage, and the strike team named Kelly arrived," he chuckled. "I think they will call to ask permission before they even think of talking to Castle again."

"What's this all about," Kate asked once they were in the car and heading toward the FBI's New York Field Office?

"I'm not going to say in the car, but Kelly is involved so you know how high the stakes are."

"Why Castle?"

"The FBI misinterpreted some things, applied a heavy dose of speculation and imagination and presto they picked Castle up. Kelly was going to ask you guys to help, but she was going to wait until you were officially back on the NYPD payroll, that's why Susan was close to Castle. She was to supposed to brief you both. The FBI just accelerated the time frame."

"Marshal, the more times our paths cross, the more I'm beginning to think you're not just a U. S. Marshal."

Marshal Dillon nodded to acknowledge Kate's insight. "Make no mistake about it. I am a U. S. Marshal."

"Just as there are cops and there are cops," remarked Kate.

Marshal Dillon's smile was the only answer Kate needed.

**Chapter 4 Kelly's Hero's **

As Castle was hustled away from Ryan and Esposito by the FBI agents he looked to his left and saw a business woman eating a hot dog and casually using her phone to take their pictures as they marched by. He was about to point it out to the FBI agents, but stopped. He chuckled to himself and shook his head. She looked an awful lot like the expert in disguises he had met when his Dad had saved him and Kate from the assassin. 'If it is,' Castle thought, 'and Kelly Johnson is involved, then today could be very interesting.' On the trip to the FBI Field Office Castle remained silent. No sense asking questions that they weren't going to answer. Instead he concentrated all of his thoughts were centered on why Kelly would be involved in this affair.

The Agents rushed Castle through the underground parking garage, into the elevator and into a rather large interrogation cell on the 9th floor. Already waiting for them were there people. A woman, from her business suit she obviously was some kind of bureaucrat and two other gentlemen, agents of some sort,' he thought.

"Sit over there and extend your arms please Mr. Castle," gruffed the smaller of the two FBI agents.

"What am I being charged with," asked Castle after the manacles had been snapped in place?

"You aren't being charged with anything, "replied Special Agent Roads. "Our warrant allows us to pick you up and place you in protective custody while we question you on a matter on National Security."

"Well let's say that not all here consider you a friendly," said Agent Jones with a slight sneer.

"So you consider me dangerous enough that I could over power two FBI agents, two agents from another Agency, and some other woman? My ego thanks you," quipped Castle. "Shall we begin?"

"When did you first meet Theodore Bishop," asked Agent Jones.

"Never heard of him."

"Why was he coming to meet you," asked Agent Roads.

"Was he? As I said I never heard of him. Why don't you ask him? … Let me guess he was the passenger in the cab that got killed on Tuesday. And that would make you two … from the Australian Embassy?" When Castle saw that his guess struck home he continued. "Okay who was this guy and why was he so important?"

"If you don't know him, why do you think he was killed in the cab," asked Agent Roads?

"You guys need to pay attention to the details. Remember the two guys I was having lunch with? Their names are Esposito and Ryan. They're the Detectives you took the case from. They were telling me about it over lunch."

"Why," asked the medium height, dark eye Aussie with close cropped dark hair?

"You guys really haven't done any homework have you? My wife is Sergeant Kate Beckett. She is a homicide Detective out of the 12th. The same precinct as these guys, and I've been Kate's shadow on cases for over seven years."

"Where were you on Tuesday?"

"Tuesday? It started around two AM when I fed James Alexander Castle. He'll be a month old in a couple of days. I would show you his picture, but you took my phone. Then there was the six AM feeding. After that Kate and I worked out. Breakfast around seven-thirty. I went to take a shower; she took off of for the club to get a swim in. After checking on James I went into my office and worked on my next book. Kate wasn't back yet so I did the ten AM feeding. After that we played video games until Kate got home. Lunch was one-ish, tuna and chicken noddle soup. Kate took care of the two PM feeding while I worked in my office. It was raining, windy and cold, so we didn't get our walk in. Around four we worked through the mail. Kate took care of the 6 PM feeding while I cooked dinner, a nice pork roast, au gratin potatoes and green beans. After dishes I signed on to the 'Castle Website', chatted with some fans. Around eight, Kate tucked be in, so to speak. That was my Tuesday."

"So no real alibi."

"Just two family members, and one of them can't talk yet," admitted Castle with a smile. "I don't know why you're looking at me for the murder. According to Esposito, it was at least a two person Team and they were pros."

"Why are you lying to us about not knowing Theodore Bishop Mr. Castle? We know he visits your website regularly," said Agent Roads.

"That just means he's a fan and unless he used his real name as his username I would not recognize it. I still don't recognize his name and I've never seen his face. Hey that's not bad idea two guys signing into a chat room to pass messages in real time. I wonder how long the Site Administer holds onto the chats that take place. Do you guys have any of the chats when we were both on?"

"He also has a lot of signed books of yours in his collection."

"No, okay, seriously?...I do a lot of book signings you know and other than asking who I should make out the autograph to our time for discourse is limited."

"What's behind your recent interest in Australia," asked the medium height, slightly overweight, glasses wearing Aussie?

"Research for a book," answered Castle immediately. "The traveling exhibit at the Natural History Museum is from their sister museum. In Perth I think. I thought that the death of the curator of Aboriginal art exhibit, and the deaths of some of the people who bought some of the pieces from the show would make a good backdrop for a case. I got the material to do my homework. When I put something in the story I try to get the details correct. If I miss something, my readers point it out to me with a passion. "

"Let's start again. When did you first meet Theodore Bishop," asked Agent Roads?

Castle took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "Look people," he said more calmly then he felt. "I have never met Mr. Bishop. I wouldn't know him if I saw him, and I have no idea why he would come to visit me. Do you have any idea why he was coming to see me?"

"We'll ask the questions Mr. Castle," said Agent Jones.

"What do know about Alice Springs," asked the first Aussie?

"A nice Northern Territory town on the edge of the Simpson Desert, but that's not the real question is it? What you really want to know is what do I know about Pine Gap right? Well the short answer is, not much. Oh I know it's an intelligence processing center and produces product based upon the downlinks from satellites, and that's the extent of my knowledge." Into the silence Castle asked, "What did this guy do at the facility."

"Tell us about your Tuesday."

"What do you want to know this time? What brand of formula we use? How long does it take to warm it up? How to change a diaper? What video game we played? Angry birds by the way."

All eyes were drawn to the door as it opened and a medium height athletically built woman with stylishly short black hair and green eyes entered the room. "Hey Castle," she said as she snagged a chair and set down next to Castle while placing a small satchel down in front of her. "What are you doing here?"

"Hey Kelly. It's been a while. I was eating lunch in the park with Esposito and Ryan then these guys picked me up and brought me here. We started playing twenty questions. I must not have gotten any of them right because they keep asking them again and again."

Kelly chuckled. "I'm going to have to talk with Kate," she said, with a small wink to Castle that he was sure no one in the room or in the room behind the mirror saw. "It seems she sent you out underdressed." Kelly reached into her satchel and pulled out the badge for a Deputy U. S. Marshal. She held it up by the chain for all to see. She locked eyes with Castle, when he nodded his head slightly she placed the chain over his head and centered the badge on his chest. "This won't due," she muttered as she touched Castles' shackles. Kelly reached into her satchel and pulled out a set of keys and began unlocking the shackles.

"Miss" shouted Agent Roads, "What do you think you doing? He's our prisoner!"

"I'm glad you're using a visual aid," said Castle as he leaned in and spoke in a whisper that was clearly audible to everyone in the room. "I don't think these guys are quick on the uptake, if you catch my drift. So when you explain it to them I suggest you speak slowly and use small words."

"Mr. Castle is no longer you prisoner," said Kelly as she handed Agent Roads a document she fished from her folder after she had released Castle from his shackles. "My name is Kelly Johnson and my Team now has the investigation, and we know Castle is not one of the bad guys. We think he can help us solve this thing. I also have paper here authorizing me to detain and question each and every one of you should I deem it necessary."

"You wouldn't dare," said the woman, the first words she had spoken since Castle had been lead into the room.

"We have diplomatic immunity," chirped the Australians.

"This is ridiculous," said Agent Jones as he got up and headed toward the door. "I'm going to get to the bottom of this."

Castle was massaging his wrists when he heard the door open followed immediately by the sound of a loud smack. A moment later Agent Jones was being helped to his seat by a small mountain of a man. "Hey Castle, how's Kate and little James?"

"Hey Ted, boss got you doing guard duty."

"Yeah," he said as he took the weapon out of Agent Jones holster, extracted the clip, and ejected the round in the chamber.

"Kate's fantastic as always," said Castle as he watched Ted Davis continue to safe Agent Jones' weapon and place it in front of Kelly. "Something tells me that you'll be seeing her soon. James is his Daddy's son, by that I mean he's part Angel part Devil and all male."

"Piss on you did he," chuckled Ted as he headed out the door?

"Twice," Castle admitted with a laugh.

Kelly rapped the table with her knuckles to gather everyone's attention. "People this is how it's going to work. In a couple of minutes you three will receive a phone call notifying you of the change of ownership in the case and the role you are expected to play. You two," she said addressing the FBI agents, "sit tight. We will be visited by Special Agent in Charge Beach. Darnell will confirm the change in status. I believe he was on the 17th tee when the Director got hold of him so he will be here shortly. "  
"This is preposterous," announced the woman.

"And we Do have diplomatic immunity," affirmed the smaller of the Australians.

Castle watched the facial expressions on the Aussie change as he read the document Kelly handed him. He started out with a look of self-satisfied smugness that was almost revolting. The expression quickly changed to that of shock, followed rapidly by a look of anger, then a touch of awe and finally one of respect. "There will be no need to execute this," he said as he handed the paper back to Kelly. "I can guarantee our complete co-operation."

"Thank you Mr. Ferguson," replied Kelly. When she saw Castle react to the name she continued, "They haven't introduced themselves have they?"

"Just Agents Roads and Jones," admitted Castle.

"Let me correct that. The lady on the end is Miss Mary Woods." Mary looked every bit the profession bureaucrat. She was of medium height and a relatively attractive woman, in her mid-thirties, and had perfect light brown hair that was probably the result of frequent trips to the hairdressers, thought Castle. Her well fitted business outfit probably cost as much as Kate's yearly budget for clothes as Detective Beckett. Her blue eyes seemed to miss nothing. "She is the Assistant Deputy Secretary for Pacific Rim Nations. Why she caught this instead of someone from the Australian desk is beyond me. Despite having the reputation as a prissy twit her work has always been solid and with the occasional flair of brilliance. If she is on her game we'll have no trouble with the Australian diplomatic corps or other countries in that area."

"Hey," remarked Mary!

"Next to her looking like a military officer in civilian clothes is Lt. Col. Henry O'Neal. In addition to his duties as the First Air Attaché at the Australian embassy, he is the embassy's resident expert in intelligence related to airpower, cyber, and the electronic warfare threats. Next to him is Collin Ferguson. He is the Chief of Station for intelligence operations in the US for the Australian Government. He's stationed out of their Washington embassy."

"He runs spies?"

"Friendly spies Castle," said Kelly with the hint of a laugh. "His Government needs to know the real state of our weapons development programs, what changes to tactics and doctrine we are considering and why, and our true intelligence capabilities, especially as it pertains to the threats facing his nation. And he has to do this in a matter that doesn't piss us off. From what I've heard he has done a first rate job since taking over the job fourteen months ago."

"Mr. Castle," said Mary Woods with a definite Boston accent, "Miss Johnson seems to know all about us. You seem to know these people. What can you tell us about them?"

Castle chanced a glance at Kelly. The hint of laughter in her eyes was the only encouragement Castle needed. "I know her as Kelly Johnson," began Castle. "If that is her name or not I don't know. I know she leads a Team of diverse, dedicated, professionals. And I do mean an ' A Team'. Our paths have only crossed once. In that adventure Kate, Detective Beckett, and I were used as bait."

"Effective bait I might add," said Kelly.

"Yeah. In less than a week we uncovered a mole in the Secret Service, smoked out a sleeper cell, and eliminated a strike team whose target was the President and his family. We also prevented the destruction of a historically significant and virtually irreplaceable ship, and saved the lives of thousands."

"Bullshit," said Special Agent Roads. "There never has been a mole in the Secret Service. Something like that would have made the news."

"Made the news," said Castle with a touch of disbelieve. "Just like it's been in the news that the Pine Gap facility has sprung a leak and the stuff is showing up here in New York."

"How did you…." exclaimed Mary Woods.

"One other thing," said Castle ignoring the outburst, "Kelly briefs the President…personally… As far as what agency she is in, I haven't a clue. After our encounter I tried to find out. After several months of nothing I get a piece of advice in the mail."

'Fatherly advice I think' thought Kelly with a small smile. She wasn't the only one to notice the family resemblance between the mission commander and Richard Castle, the assassin's target. She had done some digging, found a thread and pulled. It led to a timeline and an actress. Their secret is safe with me, Kelly vowed.

"The note was short and to the point," continued Castle. "'If you uncover enough rocks you will certainly find what you are looking for, and you shouldn't be surprised when the snake bites you.' That was the clearest 'Stay off the Grass' sign that I have ever seen."

As the silence started to stretch out, Mr. Ferguson's cell phone rang. "Ferguson…. Yeah we've been informed of the lead change…. I agree it doesn't change a thing …Oh I'm sure they understand the seriously of the situation…No it appears that the Castle lead is a bust…. Yes Sir we will."

While Mr. Ferguson was talking Miss Woods phone rang. "I've been directed to offer the full support of the State Department to you and your Team," said Mary. "I can help facilitate the movement of people into Australia and provide contacts for your Team."

"I already have a team in country and they are used to operating without dedicated support," said Kelly in a level voice. When she didn't return his glance, Castle was sure that his father was or was leading the Team. "The contacts still may be valuable for other reasons."

A couple of minutes later the door to the interrogation room opened and Special Agent in Charge Darnell Beach entered the room accompanied by another old friend from the last adventure, Special Agent Bill Hamilton.

"Ma'am," said Special Agent Beach as he entered the room and nodded to Kelly, "we're preparing your spaces now… Listen-up. We've been informed that the game has gotten a lot bigger. We've had reported outbreaks here, Singapore, and Madrid, because of this Kelly's Team will be taking charge of the investigation. Roads and Jones you're on point to organize and provide her the support she needs out of this office. Special Agent Hamilton will be bringing some specialized Teams up from Quantico to augment our staffing. Oh bundle up everything on the double homicide. We will be giving that case back to the NYPD. I understand a Detective is on her way."

"Miss Johnson I've given you Team the entire seventh floor. It's been swept for bugs. Some of your people are already there configuring it for your operational use. May I suggest we decamp to there, start from the beginning and get our plans coordinated? "

Castle took notice of the facial expressions and the body language of the people already in the room when Kelly Johnson and the group from the interrogation cell entered the large bull-pen area set aside for this task force. The room contained a number of familiar and some unfamiliar faces. Each turned toward Kelly and acknowledged her presence. If this had been a military unit, it was no doubt that someone would have called the room to attention. No matter, the effect was the same everyone knew that 'da boss was in da house.' So intent was Castle on observing the reactions of the people in the he failed to notice the approach of a beautiful, leggy brunette, "You okay Babe," asked a voice that was music to his ears?

Kelly started taking inventory the moment she entered the Team's common area. Acknowledging the greeting of her Team she searched for the last two pieces she needed to kick the operation off into high gear. Coming out of the break room and heading toward Castle from behind was the Texas Marshal and the New York Cop, in their element Kelly knew that they were the best in the business. She continued to watch Kate as Kelly made toward the desk at the front of the room and the water bottle that Arisu, her computer specialist had just placed there for her. She saw Kate speak; Castle turn and Kate turn rigid. Kate Grabbed Castle's wrist and turned to look at Kelly with an absolute look of fury on her face.

Kelly shook her head and watched the look on Kate's face fade to disgust after Castle leaned in and spoke. "I half expected Kate to draw her weapon and ask for the name of the soon to be dead man that had shackled Castle," laughingly whispered Sam McKinley, the Team's Armorer and Explosives Expert. "The cause of death on the Death Certificate would have been listed as stupidity."

Kelly nodded her agreement as she took a pull from the water bottle. Placing it back down on the desk she rapped the desk with her knuckles. "Find a place people," she said in a commanding voce that filled the room.

"The situation is this. The Intelligence Processing Center that we jointly run with the Australians near Alice Springs has sprung a massive leak. The products produced by that site have surfaced here in New York City. Our primary job is simple. We are to stop the sale and distribution of the information to the enemies of the United States. Our secondary mission is try to determine who is responsible for the leak, how the information is being transferred and why New York.

There have been reports of product being offered for sale in Singapore and Madrid. So far the material has proven to be older copies. As if someone was trying to recoup some of the money by doing a selective resale. With have a HK team in Australia and investigative Teams moving into Singapore and Madrid.

I'm not much on introductions, so to save time I'll introduce the newcomers. Newbies, if you need something ask. … The lady is Mary Woods, State Department; the Nations on the Pacific Rim are her specialty. I imagine she knows someone who can help with Spain. Lt Col Henry O'Neal and Intelligence Chief of Station Colin Ferguson are out of the Australian Embassy. They can help validate the information, should we successfully retrieve it and they can provide us insight into the Production Floor at Alice Springs... Status… Arisu?"

"The rooms are non-op boss. With the Techs that Special Agent in Charge Beach has lent us we'll have this room operational in a couple of hours. I've got equipment in route to configure the special enclave, but the communications equipment is proving a bit more difficult. I will have everything ready by Monday morning. Oh, right now only the core team and the Aussies will have access to the enclave."

"Okay, works, we can look at adding individuals on a special need basis. If there is any rock you need lifted or favor called in let me know."

"Roger that."

"Surveillance? Ted?"

"We've got eyes on the two known and three of the highly probable. We have no resources to cover the remainder. Bill's Teams will be here tomorrow and that we get us enough assets to cover all the known and highly portables. I've also got two teams working backwards trying to find if and where the known ones intersect. Considering that this was an electronic transfer, I'm not hopeful."

"Any luck on the warrants?"

"No. The Judge knows the stakes, but since we have nothing…"

"Got it. Prepare contingences for me please."

"Yes Ma'am."

"External Teams? Tom?"

"Team one on site, Teams Two and Three en-route. They'll be in place within the next 24."

"The Fort Mead guys? Sam?"

"En-route, touchdown on the helipad in twenty. They weren't happy to be pulled in on a Saturday. But the General can be… We need to bring Castle up to speed."

"Okay, Agents Roads and Jones please prepare and give the data on the double homicide to Detective Beckett."

"Being prepared Ma'am. We'll have it ready in the morning."

"In that case, send it over to the 12th," said Kate, "to the attention of Detectives Esposito and Ryan."

"Esposito said it was an ambush," said Castle. "You're going to need to backtrack and find out who knew he was coming and ordered the hit."

"You telling me how to do my job mister," asked Kate in a clear cold voice that shocked the room?  
"Ah, no," replied Castle in a small voice, "It's just…"

"Is he always like this," asked Kelly seeing the small smile on Kate's face?

"Sometimes. At home I just kiss him to get him to stop and capture his attention. Sometimes at work I have to kick him in the shin. Feel free to use that method to get his attention if he rambles too much. Kicking I mean, but not too hard, sometimes he can be such a whiner. Kissing is my prerogative."

Kelly looked from Kate to the sheepish grin on Castle's face to the looks of amusement on her Team's face. That exchange meant nothing and everything. The fact that Castle was the least professional of the bunch bothered no one. The bather between them was what passed between partners, and the entire Team had confidence in their partnership.

"Okay, Questions? …Speculations… Yes Castle."

"The reason for New York is simple. This is where the market is," through the chuckles Castle continued. "Look we all know that in the information age the sale can take place anywhere and to anybody. Let's suppose the seller of the information wanted some additional backside protection. Who better to sell to than a person with diplomatic immunity? The two places that have the most people with status that don't exactly like the U.S. are New York and …."

"Washington," added Kate. ""Is there a New York connection to someone in Pine Gap?"

"Don't know," said Kelly. "It just became a parameter."

"Castle may be on to something Sir," said Ted. "All of our confirmed buyers have status."

"And because of that we can't do as in-depth a look as we want," asked Castle?  
"That checks," Ted confirmed.

"One other thing, when the FBI pulled me in this afternoon it wasn't just because of some guys using the fan-site was it?"

"No", answered Kelly. "There were some other circumstances like the book code and the off-shore bank account."

"What off-shore account," asked Kate and Rick at the same time?  
"The one someone established for you in Singapore. Originally it looked like you were being paid to facilitate something's, but the timeline didn't hold. We are still looking into the money transfers just in case," Kelly warned.

"Please continue," said a confounded Castle.

"Well you always did say that Singapore was one of your favorite places," said Kate with a touch of a smile.

"That's when I was single and better able to ah….."

"Sounds like," whispered Kate to the amusement of all.

"Appreciate the beauty of the parks and the diverse cultural buildings and endeavors," added Max Wilson, the Team's Pointman and electronics expert.

"That's right," Castle agreed quickly.

"Sure," said Kate with a knowing smile. On more than one occasion she had heard Castle talk with the boys about how the mixture of the European and Asian genes in Singapore just seem create the most beautiful women in the world. "Just out of curiosity, when was the account opened?"

"About twenty months ago," said Agent Jones.

"So right after we got married, and is it a Joint Account or in Castle's name only," continued Kate.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"In this case everything Special Agent," said Kelly. "It's in Castle's name only."

"Kate I would never…"

"I know Babe."

'That we all know,' thought Kelly. After their last adventure her Team thought that the only thing that would separate Castle and Beckett was Death, and he had better bring back-up. Kelly was certain that if Death came for Castle Kate would put up one hell of a fight. And Castle? He has already taken four bullets for Kate; fighting Death to keep Kate by his side would probably seem like an annoyance.

Kelly chose that moment to end the meeting. "Nothing else? – Sam bring Castle up to speed on the book code, the rest of us… well let's get back to work."

Kelly watched her Team disperse Arisu and the Techs to configure the room, Ted, Bill and the Special Agent in Charge to discuss surveillance teams and schedules, Kate to the Mary Woods and the Aussies and Castle to Sam in one of the small rooms up front. 'The Meade people have had four samples for almost six months now and they have nothing. Are we just dreaming that Castle can come up with something that they haven't? If we can't then we have to rely on our surveillance teams and trust that the people who bought in the past will gather together to buy in the future if not….' On an impulse she followed Castle and Sam into the small office.

"This is what we got," said Sam laying five sheets of paper on the desk in front of himself and Castle.

On the top of three pages, like a header, was the phrase 'NikkyHeat'. On the other two pages was the phrase 'DerrickStorm.'

"Tell me so I don't have to count them," said Castle, "How many numbers in a row and how many rows?"

"Sixty-four and sixty-four," replied Sam.

"Okay, they've created a matrix to perform matrix operations on," said Castle.

"Exactly," said a female voice. The voice belonged to a small, shapely, and young black woman whose glasses, clothes, and body language just screamed nerd.

"And we're clueless as to the operations and the operator," said a medium height, slightly overweight Hispanic man in his early forties who dressed just as nerdy as his companion. "I'm Tony Park, and she is Mary Ann Dalton."

"Castle. And you guys are from…"  
"Down south," replied Mary Ann.

"Okay, sixty-four is one of those magical numbers; let's try to find out way. In order to make this work they are going to have to encode a lot of thing. The first thing is the character number. Since I don't see a lot of zeroes I'm going to assume that they use other numbers to create it. Let's say four for the base and four for the offset."

As Castle was speaking Mary Ann went to a white board and began making notes. "Let's say that the type of operation is depended upon the offset number. If the number is even the number is added, if odd it is subtracted."

"We ignore the roll-over number and treat everything as absolute values," added Tony.

"End of Message," asked Mary Ann?"

"Four nines," suggested Castle?  
"Works. What else?"

"One number for the book number of course, three numbers for the page number, two numbers for the line number and two numbers for the character number. Oh and they would need to use the digital version of the book. The answer would vary from edition to edition and from hardback to paperback," added Castle.

"That gives us sixteen numbers," said Mary Ann. "That gives us 4 letters per line and two-hundred and fifty-six per page."

"Five pages gives us somewhere between one thousand twenty four and one thousand two hundred and eighty letters per message. That's consistent with four numbers needed to define the character number. But that still doesn't help with the matrix operations. Oh we know the matrix has been transposed, big deal. But we need to know what else is happening," said Tony.

After a long pause, "What if 'NikkiHeat' is the operator? Look how they wrote it, without a space between the names. If they just wanted to tell us that they words came from the Nikki Heat series they could have used NH or Nikki."

"If we convert that to 8-bit ASCII it gives us a 72-bit operator," said Tony

"Which is larger than our target, good. What if the operations varied from line to line? Even add odd subtract," added Mary Ann?

"Simple and easy to implement. Also what if the operator shifted by one bit for each row," said Tony.

"Simple and elegant," agreed Mary Ann."

"Guys," asked Castle "is the decryption process too complicated? I mean the buyers aren't going to have supercomputers."

"All these things can be done on a laptop, or a tablet that has a worksheet app."

"I wish we had another sample so we could check the header operator thing," said Castle out loud.

"We do," confirmed Kelly. "And if memory serves…"

"They are different Ma'am," added Tony. "We just didn't think to look…. When we came here I would have said we had tried everything. Now we have more to try. Ma'am I think we can head back now."

"Good," said Kelly as she noticed Kate waving to get her attention.

"Kate?"

"I have Mr. Sam Burke on the line. He's one of the IT guys at Pine Gap. He says he lacks the authority to release the phone records to the NYPD."  
"Probably so," said Kelly as she reached for the "Sam this is Kelly Johnson. In about thirty minutes you will be receiving a message on the High side directing you to release those records to the site contained in the message. The receiving site will process and pass redacted versions of the records to the NYPD. The NYPD is helping us investigate the death of Mr. Bishop. It will be our responsibility to ensure that nothing of a classified nature leaks to the NYPD. …Good"  
"Sorry about that Kate. I should have anticipated that. We will get you what you need. How did the civilian side go?"

"I had a nice chat with Inspector McDonald. Apparently his daughter is dating the victim's son. So he's motivated. In return I promised to tell him everything that I can. Guidelines?"

"On the murder investigation everything, on other things use your common sense. If in doubt don't." Both of them watched Castle drift into the room and head in their direction. "Welcome back Kate, and this time you guys aren't bait."

**Chapter 6 It's fourth and two with forty-seven seconds left. **

It was Sunday morning in the Loft and things were definitely not normal. Kate checked her appearance in the mirror and liked what she saw. Cocking her head to listen she was concerned by the silence. Normally the other 'user' of the bathroom would be having a running conversation with the newest addition to their household, but today nothing. All Kate heard was silence.

Frowning, Kate exited the bedroom and headed toward the kitchen and the counter-top area which was the heart of her home. By the front door in its usual place was the umbrella style stroller and Jim's day bag. Rounding the corner Kate smiled when she saw the basinet that contained her 'Little Tiger'. From the NY Knicks baby blanket by its side she concluded that Castle had dressed James in a shirt and pants. Kate had read Castle the riot act the first time he wanted to take James to church dressed in his jammies. She completely understood, especially after changing a diaper in the car, but appearances are appearances, and Kate demanded that they be maintained, and today Castle's appearance was another matter.

He had showered, of course, but had not changed out of his house clothes and showed no inclination of doing so. The hurt expressions on his face made Kate want to reach out and smother her husband in a hug. Coffee first, she decided. Castle will tell me what's going on when he's ready. Kate kissed her son, nodding in approval of Castle's outfit choice, and moved to pour herself a cup of coffee. After topping of Castle's she sat down, stole a piece of bacon, and watched as Castle placed a piece of cut toast on her plate, scooped up a couple of the eggs he had been basting. After placing them on the toast he added a small portion of hash browns and handed Kate her plate. Marrying a man that knew how to cook and didn't mind had been a huge benefit, Kate decided as she started eating her breakfast. She watched as Castle prepared his plate and started eating. She nodded to herself at the restraint Castle was showing in regards to the portion of hash browns he had scooped out for himself, but as they ate the silence was killing her. "Hey Tiger," she finally asked James, "what's got your Dad in such a state that he won't even talk with his wife?"

"Page twenty-six," grumbled Castle.

"Wow," said Kate after she had finished reading, "that was as thorough a character and intelligence beat down as I've read in a long time."

"Next page, 'Writers who…'"

""Mystery writers should leave the 'mystery' of governance to those quailed to do so,'" quoted Kate. "Who does he think he is?"

"A Political Science Professor from Columbia "answered Castle. "Alexis had him last semester. 'Review of Books Section' page eighteen, half way down Mike's column."

"'If it wasn't for his wife's day job a certain NY writer would have nothing to write about, I mean the lack of originality is galling, for me I think he would be better off writing 'True Crime'"," quoted Kate. "And you've got 'Neutral Ground' being released in two weeks…Oh Babe," Kate said reaching out to grab Castle's hand. She understood his dilemma. They had attacked his opinions, intelligence and his creativity. They had done it in a way that Castle was powerless to respond. "New Op Ed piece?"

"No time," Castle responded. "I'm a little behind on the book because I've been spending a lot of time with the two most important people on the planet, and I'm not going to let those guys take that away from me just to massage my ego."

"Soooo," asked Kate. "How long are you going to mope around?"

"Till around noon," Castle responded with a wan smile. "Because around one I've got a ballgame to watch with my son and my father-in-law, after that I get to take the most beautiful and extraordinary woman in the world to dinner, and tomorrow I get to help her start a new case."

Kate nodded, checked the time and reached for James. Castle helped Kate get James settled into the stroller and kissed her on cheek. "Any requests for lunch?"

"Light and nutritious, I imagine dinner will kill our diet."

"Done and done."

"Oh Castle, do you think the articles and the off-shore account are related?"

"Now you're thinking like a mystery novelist," smiled Castle as he gave Kate a gentle hug goodbye.

"'Now you're thinking like a mystery novelist,'" mumbled Kate as she buckled James into his car seat. "Sometimes your Dad infuriates me. He could have just said yes. Of course he thought they're related and now he's going to look for the links."

Kate closed the door, opened the driver's door and got in behind the wheel. 'I miss my Cruiser' she thought. 'Not that driving the Mercedes had been a chore.' When Kate had taken the desk job she had turned her Cruiser back to the Motor Pool for re-assignment. She hoped they had a vehicle for her when she showed up on Monday. As she drove to church she couldn't help but think about the current situation. "They shot and only slightly wounded the Tiger," she said out loud. "And if I know my Castle the Tiger is pissed." Kate had the confidence born of experience. If there was a connection, her husband would find it.

'This attack would have probably hurt a younger, more ego centric Castle,' thought Kate. 'My version is more grounded. I'm his anchor,' she reflected, 'so he doesn't fly away and he's always tugging at my hand to join him as we run to look over the next hill. We're a pretty good Team. With me his doesn't fly into the sun and I don't get stuck in the mud.'

"Castle your son's both stinky and hungry," shouted Kate after she and her Dad had entered the Loft.

"We can fix that," said Castle after he had placed the formula bottle into the warm water. "Give me," he said holding out his arms. "Hi Jim. You know the rules of the house. Oh there's chicken noddle and navy bean soup in the crockpots."

Kate handed James to Castle and moved into the kitchen.

Mr. Beckett hung up his coat in the closet and marveled for the thousandth time at the dance that his Katie and Rick seemed to do. Each seemed to know what the other needed and was in position to provide it. While Rick was changing his namesake Kate had moved into the kitchen and was checking on the formula.

"Deviled eggs," exclaimed Kate! "You made deviled eggs!"

"The carton said they expire tomorrow so…."

"Deviled eggs!"

"Save your Dad some," he teased.

Lunch was done. It was mid-way through the first quarter. James was asleep on the couch between his father and his grandfather. Neither one of them harbored the slightest thought about relocating him to his crib. Kate had just left for her spa appointment.

"When were you going to tell me," asked Castle?

James looked at his son-in-law and shrugged. "I've got an Ethics Review on Tuesday and I've been effectively ambushed. "

Castle got gloomier and gloomier as James told his story. When James started to tell about some of the inconsistencies Castle brightened. "Your right, I don't think I can prove that you didn't do it. I think we can show that it was impossible for you to do some of these transactions and how easy it is to set someone up. Let's adjourn to my office. Do you know any of the names?"

Kate walked into the Loft. The scarf over her hair was still damp from the snow/rain mix that was starting to come down. 'No carriage ride tonight,' she sighed. As she slipped out of her coat she rounded the corner toward the TV area and stopped dead in her tracks. What she didn't see frightened her. There were fort-seven seconds left in the game. The Giants were down by three, had the ball and were driving, and the couch was empty! The murmur from Castle's office comforted Kate somewhat and she moved in that direction.

"Will someone tell what's going on," said Kate as she finished removing the scarf from her hair.

"Katie you look absolutely lovely," said her Dad.

"I'm glad someone noticed," said Kate as she scooped James out of his basinet. "And you are forgiven because you can't talk," she continued as she hugged and kissed her son, and then sat down and in a chair with James on her lap.

"Kate I" started Castle.

"I love you Richard Castle," added Kate before Rick could finish.

Jim looked from the surprised look on Castle's face to the impish smile on Kate's face that so much reminded him of his wife and concluded that the love these two shared would last forever.

"Nice try at deflecting the question Dad. Now give over."

Kate felt a growing sense of doom as her Dad and Castle described the Cloud account, the company files that had been copied into that account and the bank account. "But you may have saved me Katie," her Dad gushed. "Castle noticed that on some of the transfer dates and times I was here and he found pictures on your laptop."

"That means you didn't do those transfers, nice, but that may not be enough," said Kate.

"That's what Castle thought. So he set up a Cloud account in Mike Berra's name. He's the IT guy, transferred a couple of files and set-up an offshore account for him and three members of the review panel."

Kate thought for a moment. They certainly couldn't prove that her Dad didn't set-up the Cloud account and transfer the files. All they could prove is that it's easy for someone else to do. Setting up the off-shore accounts was a nice touch. "Who," she whispered.

"Arisu"

"Arisu …Why?"

"She's the best I know."

"I know. Why she agree?"

"Something about 'Nobody messing her with her family,' and I said I would owe her one."

Mr. Beckett watched Kate swallow hard, and look from Castle to him and then back to Castle. After a moment he saw his daughter nod her head in agreement. "Did I miss something?"

"Nothing Dad"

"We both know that there is no such thing as nothing Katie. What's going on?"  
"Remember Tom Cruise in the Mission Impossible movies?"

"I remember the TV series," said Jim. "Go on."

"Well Arisu works for Kelly, and she leads a real life Mission Impossible Team."

"It sounds worse than it is," said Castle. "They may ask us to help like they did in the past," said Castle in attempt to quail Jim's fears. "In the past they have only asked us to do what we do best."

"Just like this time," confirmed Kate. "It's not as bad as it sounds Dad. Kelly's Team is the good guys."

"Still," said Jim. He wanted to say more, but the determined on his kid's faces forced him to change his mind. "Rick, Two-thirty on Tuesday at the Baxter Building?"

"I'll be there," affirmed Castle.

The Castle family was lounging on pillows in front of the fireplace. Dinner had been spectacular. Picture sharing with Madison and the Chief had been grand and the greetings from friends had been balm to Kate's soul. The only thing that didn't cooperate was the weather. Traditionally Kate and Castle had enjoyed a carriage ride after dinner, but not this evening. Kate and Rick had planned to substitute 'fireplace time' in place of the carriage ride that the weather had cancelled, but as usual plans change to reflect reality. A hungry James Alexander Castle had derailed their plan. Now Kate set upright on the floor, her back supported by pillows, with a sleepy James in her arms. She had changed out of her dress and into her bathroom over one of her favorite teddies. Castle had taken off his jacket and tie, but was still wearing his formal white shirt and black trousers.

Kate looked from the yawning face of her son to the gentle smile on her husband's face. "Thank you my Good Knight for a wonderful evening."

"You're welcome, my Lady. Showing my wife a night on the town is in the job description. " The subtext was clear, 'We should do this more often.'

Kate's smile and gentle squeeze of Castle's hand acknowledged the extremely mild rebuke. "Do you think we will ever discover who targeted my Dad?"

"I don't think your Dad was the primary target. Sure he was targeted, but I think the real target is you," whispered Castle.

"Look," he continued when he saw the look of astonishment on Kate's face. "It's known that some new mothers suffer from some form of depression." After Kate's small nod Castle continued, "I think the Castle before Kate would have gone ballistic after he read what the newspapers had written. He would have been so pre-occupied with himself that I would not been mentally able to help your Dad."

Kate smiled at the complement and nodded. "You're probably right. They were probably counting on your distress bothering me, and it would, and if my Dad gets dis-barred."

"That still may happen."

"I know, but not as likely. Also whoever is behind this probably didn't consider my Dad asking you for help and you coming up with a decent plan…What's next?"

"Don't know," Castle admitted. "If I would guess I think they will take another run at me based upon the off-shore account. Then a run at us."

"Us?"

"Yeah, something to drive a wedge between us. Then a work related run at you."

"What are we going to do?"

"Research," replied Castle with the toothy smile of a predator on the hunt. "I'll think I'll try to find a money trail."

Kate smiled and nodded, 'research' was Castle's answer to everything, and he usually found what he looked for. Kate looked down at her sleeping son, nodded, and together she and Castle rose off of the floor, walked up the stairs and placed the most precious thing in their lives in his crib.

**Chapter 7 Monday …Monday **

From her desk Captain Gates watched Castle walk-in to the bull-pen area grab two coffee cups off of Kate's desk and walk back into the break room. 'Why would he…Oh Kate has the picture showing detail,' she smiled to herself. She watched Castle return with two coffees, place them on the desk, pick up a marker and start annotating the murder board. 'How does he? Of course the stuff the FBI sent over is incomplete. Captain Gates heard, rather than saw Detective Beckett arrive in the Bull-Pen. Talking a glance at her watch she frowned, then smiled. 'Time for a small lesson', she thought. Captain Gates waited until Beckett had settled in before approaching. "Detective unless I'm mistaken your shift began twenty minutes ago," she said in a stern voice.

"I uhm…"

"Now show me," the Captain smiled.

"Give me a couple of minutes to check my emails before you begin," said Kate after she had finished showing Captain Gates the baby pictures. "….Okay, by the phone lists put three check marks I'll explain when we get there. "

"Right," said Castle as he annotated the murder board and started the case briefing ritual which he had done a hundred times over the years. "Our victims are Mr. Daaruk Ranhorta, a cab driver with over twelve years of experience. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time and the real target, Mr. Theodore Bishop an Australian National, who was apparently on his way to see me."

"We saw that on the trip sheet," said Esposito. "Any idea as to why?"

Castle looked at Kate who shrugged and said, "They didn't say it was classified."

Castle nodded and began, "Mr. Bishop was the Deputy Chief of Security for a joint Australian-United States in Australia…"

"Near Alice Springs," whispered Esposito.

"That facility has sprung a leak and some of the products they produce have shown up here in New York. The FBI has identified a lot of potential buyers and is starting to conduct surveillance. Mr. Bishop discovered that the bad-guys were using the Castle website to communicate in real time and using the 'Games' feature to post encrypted messages based upon a book code that uses my books. I really don't know why he was coming to see me. I'm assuming he was going to ask for help with the web site and the book code."

"What not use to his American counter-part and let the FBI or some other Agency come over and talk to you," asked Ryan.

"Don't know Kevin," admitted Castle.

"That's good background," admitted Captain Gates. "But let's get back on point."

"Espo, ballistics?"

"It was a pro hit," said Esposito with conviction. "The shot was only eighty-five yards, but the perch the shooter selected was perfect. We went over and looked yesterday. The perch was out of sight, and provided the shooter with a clear unobstructed view with no sun issues. The perch provide three independent methods of egress. The shot itself was pedestrian, but the location scout was first class. Another thing," added Esposito, "the American flag that the video store had out front provided a great indication of the winds, which can be tricky in an urban canyon."

Castle watched Kate shiver as Esposito described the perch. Kate had admitted that sometimes she had flashbacks to the worst and one of the best days in her life. Worst because she got shot, best because the man she knew she loved but could not approach had told her he loved her. Kate locked eyes with Castle and nodded slightly, 'I'm ok love' she longed to say but couldn't.

"How did he know which cab to shot," asked Ryan?

"There must have been a third member of the team and he followed him from the airport," suggested Kate.

"How did he know the cab would take this route," asked Castle suggestively?

"He must have taken a cab ride or two from the airport to someplace near the Loft," replied Kate.

"Did the FBI send over any airport surveillance footage, or cab trip sheets," asked Castle?

"No," answered Esposito.

"Okay," said Kate, "Let's add to them to the list of things we need to get. Kevin, anything useful in the crime scene photos?"

"Just a picture of the killer's foot print."

"Is it distinctive," asked Castle?

"What are you going Mr. Castle," asked Captain Gates?

"Sir, a camouflage coat comes off and is easily stuffed in a bag. Same thing for quick disconnect trouser covers…."

"But no one has the time to change out their shoes," added Esposito. "We'll check to see if the thread pattern is distinctive enough. If it then we'll see if we can spot the shoes or whatever in footage from some of the stores."

"A bit of a 'Hail Mary' Mr. Castle," commented Captain Gate's.

"Yes Sir, "Castle acknowledged with a shrug. "Phones. Beckett?"

"The Bureau has finished looking at the phones records from Pine Gap. The email said that there was one anomaly but they will only talk about it face-to-face."

"Okay," said Castle "a trip downtown appears to be in order. Next."

"Inspector Todd, he's a member of the Police Force in Alice Springs could not release the entire phone record to us. It seems his 'Federal Court' I think wouldn't release the names or the phones numbers of the people calling New York. He gave us a time of call and the number that was called. If we feed those two back to him he can determine who called."

"Makes it difficult for us to judge context," grumbled Ryan.

"Yeah it does," agreed Kate.

"How many," asked Esposito?

"A couple of hundred I think. One other thing. In a separate file he gave us a New York based cell phone. It apparently made two calls."

"Initial contact, and contract go ahead," offered Castle?

"Could be," agreed Beckett. "The Inspector cautioned that we remember the time differential when we put together a telephone time line."

"Good advice, "said Captain Gates, "That means we have to check overnight delivers from New York to Alice Springs."

"I think the Feds can get that warrant for us," said Kate.

"Right," said Castle distractedly.

'I know that look', thought Kate.

"Espo how long were you on scene before the FBI showed up," asked Castle has he started to look through the evidence box?

"Maybe ten minutes why?"

"Because I want to know how the FBI knew the name of the victim and had a warrant issued in that short of time," said Castle as he held up the warrant.

"The FBI must have had him followed," said Ryan.

"Not the FBI," said Kate, "They would have taken control of the crime scene immediately. It must have been the …"  
"Australians'" said Esposito. "Look when someone in his position and the security clearance he holds makes reservations to fly to a foreign country, even a friendly one, it sets flags.

"Do you think the Australian's put a tail on him," asked Castle?

"Makes sense," said Kate. "When things went south he called home plate, who called a friendly FBI POC and the FBI swoops in to limit exposure. That means we have a witness. Castle, that's another thing for you to talk to them about today."

"You're not coming?"

"Too much dog work. Hurry back and you can help." To everyone's surprise, except Kate, Castle did just that.

"No Kate," asked Kelly as she walked out of the break room with a fresh cup of coffee as Castle walked into the Team's Bull pen?

"Phones, shoes, timelines and videos," replied Castle. "Between your cryptic email and what we learned on the civilian side we need to talk, but right after I talk with Mr. Ferguson." Curious, Kelly followed along.

As Castle walked toward the Australian he noticed that the Bull-Pen was rather empty and quiet. The only information on the white boards was surveillance target id's and team surveillance numbers. 'We're still in reactive mode,' thought Castle 'and clueless as to who and how. We need to change that. I wonder how the code-breakers are making out. Right now that appears to be our best shot, unless my Dad comes up with something. Maybe the web-site guys?'

"Good morning Mr. Ferguson. Where's your compatriot," asked Castle?

"Back at the Embassy. There's no need for the both of us to be here. What can I do for you?"

"I'm relaying a request from the NYPD. They would like to talk to the agent you had follow Mr. Bishop from the airport."

Mr. Ferguson remained silent as he looked from Castle to Kelly and back to Castle.

"Look," Castle continued, "The FBI showed up ten minutes after the NYPD with Mr. Bishop's name in the warrant requiring the NYPD to stand down and transfer all materials to them. How did they get his name so soon? If an FBI agent had followed Mr. Bishop then the Agent would have taken immediate control of the crime scene and there would have been no need for a Warrant to settle a jurisdictional dispute. No the name had to come from you guys. My guess is you got suspicious when you were informed that Mr. Bishop was travelling to America and landing at Kennedy instead of Dulles. Am I right?... Look we are only interested in two things. What can he tell us about the shooter? Was the shooter a male? Right handed? Anything. Kate will probably kick my ass for saying, but I don't think a female could handle the Deseret Eagle like that. I mean the shot grouping was impressive. "

"The other thing we would like to know is did your agent see anyone suspicious as he was waiting for his target to arrive, or was his Tradecraft so bad that he only had tunnel vision and was unaware of someone marking his mark, because in order to pull this ambush off the shooters obviously needed a point-man."

Mr. Ferguson inwardly winced at Castle's tone of voice and the truth of his remarks. "I was present when the FBI questioned him about the shooting. All he knew was that the shooter entered the scene from his right, cab curbside, opened the passenger door, unloaded into Bishop, closed the door, turned around and exited the same way. Also he saw that the assassin was wearing a baseball cap under a gray hoodie, and that was topped by an urban camouflage jacket. He didn't see the shooters pants or shoes. No one asked about the airport."

"Can we," asked Castle nodding toward the phone?

"Let's use the small conference room that way I can put him on speaker," said Mr. Ferguson.

"Hey Rob," said Mr. Ferguson. "I'm in a Conference Room at the FBI building In New York. I'm going to put you on speaker with some people who are investigating Ted's death. These are the good guys so answer straight up. They are particularly interested about what you saw at the airport. Here we go… Mr. Castle you have Rob Stevenson on the line. He's one of mine and he followed Ted from the airport to where he was shot."

"Rob, this is Mr. Castle. Did you noticing anyone else paying attention to you or to Mr. Bishop?"

"I….No Sir I don't remember anybody at all."

"What about at the Taxi Stand. Did someone jump in line behind him?"

"No I was right behind him, now that you mention it someone did jump in front of him."

"Nice! They followed from in front. Can you describe the person?"

"Only that it was a young woman, maybe in her early twenties."

"I don't suppose you got a receipt for the cab ride."

"Yeah, I needed it for my expense report."

"Could you fax or scan an email it so we can talk with your cab driver?

"Go ahead Rob," offered Mr. Ferguson, "It's not going to compromise anything and it gives them another slim thread to pull on."

"Roger that."

"Thanks for your co-operation. If we have any other questions we'll work through Mr. Ferguson."

"He's the boss so that works."

"Thanks Rob, Bye," added Mr. Ferguson as he broke the connection.

"Next," asked Kelly?  
"Phones, what you found out and I'll share what the Australians highlighted for us. Kate and the Boys were starting to dig through the rest of the calls this morning."

"Stay here, let me get some more people," said Kelly.

Minutes later Kelly returned with Max Wilson, Marshal Dillon and Arisu bearing a cup of coffee for Castle. "Kate warned us that lack of coffee turns you into an insufferable manic. So I thought prevention was in order."

"You're a Saint," offered Castle as he accepted the cup and took a healthy swallow.

"Our nickel," said Kelly. "Max"

"Right, there weren't that many phone calls from the Site to New York City," said Max. "Of those calls only one stands out. It's to a bar called Ajax on west 49th. It's a known hiring hall Castle. If you call asking for delivery the owner will set you up with a transporter, take-out and assassin, chef's special, a thief and so on. We were able to trace the call back to a Conference Room at the facility and based upon the locational data provided by their badges the suspect pool narrows to five people. We're concentrating our efforts on those five."

"That's very interesting," said Castle. "Because the point that the Alice Springs Police brought to our attention was the fact that a New York based burner phone made two calls to another burner phone in New York."

"Easy working hypothesis," said Kelly after looking at the dates and times of the calls, "One of the five placed the call to Ajax, received a cell phone, then called to set-up the contract and then called again to confirm the hit details."

"Our thoughts exactly," said Castle, "but we didn't know about the hiring hall call. Next we need to find out who sent and received a cell phone sized package in the appropriate window."

"Leave that to us," smiled Kelly.

"That's what we thought," said Castle.

"Anything else?"

"Code-breakers?"

"No word, we'll check later in the day. Crowding those folks never works."  
"The off-shore account?"

"Mixed success," offered Marshal Dillon. "You now have control of the account," the Marshal continued handing Castle an account number and a passcode. "Before the account was in your name but you couldn't access it. We have placed an indefinite hold on deposits, but we're clueless on the prime source of the funds. By the time funds are deposited in your account they been washed at least seven times. We are still looking for patterns."

"The advice from a friend in the Treasury," said Special Agent Bill Hamilton "was that the sooner you claim this as income and pay the taxes and the penalties the better. "

"Thanks, I'll tell my accountant to do that. But the real important question is does any agency think I'm selling out my country. If it comes to that, I can handle the hit to reputation that I tried to hide money and got caught, but selling out my country. I couldn't handle that."

"We have no evidence Castle," confirmed Special Agent Hamilton. "But we are still trying to find the source of the funds."

"You have my permission to do so, not that you need it of course. The traitor thing," continued Castle. "That's a brush I never want to be painted with."

Castle was surprised to find Kate working alone when he returned to the precinct.

"Your cab driver lead may give us a solid suspect," said Kate by way of explanation. "I sent Espo and Kevin out to track down the first cab driver, he gave us the other cab driver and his trip sheet has him dropping a fare across the street from the video store three minutes prior to the shooting. That cabbie is coming down to talk with our sketch artist. May I offer you a sheet or two of phone numbers?"

The Castle's arrived home a little later than normal. They had stayed to finish up the phone calls. No leads there but it had to be done. Waiting for them was one happy James Alexander and one letter from the IRS informing Castle that he was scheduled for a full audit and it would begin next week.

"More pressure, more stress" said Kate.

"Yeah, but nothing to worry about. Tom is a great accountant and will stand behind what we did. Now that we know about the off-shore bank account we can be proactive instead of reactive."

"What's next, the wedge," asked Kate?

"Not going to happen," said Castle as he reached out and pulled Kate into a hug.

'Damn straight' thought Kate as she returned Castle's hug.

**Chapter 8 Tuesday Afternoon **

Kelly's email 'Code-breakers – squat; surveillance – zip and package match in progress' was an adequate summation of the state of the case. The NYPD contributions would include civilian phone calls -nil' and footprint – nada. The only bright spot was they had an artist sketch of a tentative point-woman and the operative word was tentative.

This morning Beckett, Ryan and Esposito were looking through footage from the taxi stand from Kennedy International arrivals. They hoped to spot the point-woman on a scouting mission. This left Castle with the job of sorting through Taxi logs and trip sheets. The problem with that was that they were individual pieces of unorganized paper and formatted for use by the parent company, which meant that Castle had to look in different places on each form for the same information. It was boring and tedious work. To make matters worse neither Castle's head or heart were fully engaged in the activity. Today he was preoccupied with his father-in-laws afternoon Ethics hearing. At breakfast Kate had been more upbeat then Castle. Castle was secretly worried that his 'grand' strategy would backfire and Jim would be disbarred. Then what? Castle had just finished the second of seven boxes when the three Detectives returned from the video review rooms.

"She appears to be our scout alright," said Ryan holding up a couple of pictures. "We have her on two different days at approximately the same time of Mr. Bishops arrival getting into a cab. Any luck on finding the trip sheet?"

"No, but I still have five boxes left. What's the other picture?"

"In this one she appears to be talking to two men," said Beckett.

"Our shooters?"

"Could be, or their asking her for a date," quipped Esposito.

Kate looked at Castle and understood his lack of humor and the strained look on his face. "Let me buy you lunch before you head off."

"You're not putting in a full day's work," quipped Ryan?

"Work of a different sort," replied Kate coming to her husband's defense. 'And to me much more important.'

As Castle rounded the corner after exiting the elevator on the seventh floor of the Baxter Building on his way to room 719 he was glad to see that the messenger service had delivered the poster boards they had made up and he was curious as to who Jim was chatting with. The gentlemen was relatively tall, at least six-four, thin, and very distinguished looking in his traditional lawyer's uniform and steel gray hair. Catching Jim's eye, Castle was quickly waved over.

"Henry," began Jim," This is my son-in-law Richard Castle. Castle this is Henry Davis. He is one of the senior partners in the firm and has agreed to be my Advocate."

"Pleasure to meet you Sir," said Castle as they shook hands. "Am I to believe that this is good news?"

Chuckling Henry began, "What you guys did in a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon scared the crap out of me. Jim said he couldn't prove he didn't do it. All that he could prove is how easy it could be done. But what really convinced me though was the fact that he could not have done some of the transfers. By itself that probably would not have been enough, but when combined with everything else that you guys did…"

"Any change that I could observe?"

"Afraid not Rick," said Jim. "The Proceedings are closed. We both know you know what's going on but still…"

"How about if a certain U.S. Deputy Marshal we both know asks?"

"Him too," Jim laughed. "I'll explain later," said Jim when he saw the puzzled look on Henry's face. "I'm afraid you're going to have to wait out here. I don't know if we will need to call you in as a witness, but if we do…."

"I'll be here."

"Castle do you have your Marshal's badge with you?"

"Yeah, in case I have to go downtown. Why?"

"If we call you to testify, wear it please… The lawyers in here are all corporate geeks, and I want to see how they react when they something resembling a police figure."

After Castle watched Jim and Henry walk into the hearing room he sauntered over to a bench by the windows, pulled out his Tablet and made some notes. He tried to improve on the outline for his next Opinion-Editorial piece, but couldn't concentrate. Eventually he started playing games. He knew he was distracted, because the Zombies were literally eating him for lunch!

The meeting room was a medium sized conference room that another law firm had configured to hold mock trials. At the 'Head' of the room was a table where normally the judge would sit, but today it would be the workplace of the Tribunal. To the right and in front of and placed at ninety degrees to the Tribunal's table was the witness chair. A couple of steps further away were the tables for the prosecution and the defense. Next to the wall to the left of the Tribunal's table were chairs for the jury, which today would be empty. Behind the tables for the Counselors were chairs for the observers. For a case like this they would be empty. For this case both parties had made an exception, Tom Olson, the Senior Partner for the firm had been granted permission to observe the proceedings.

When Henry and James entered the room they were surprised that they were the last to arrive. The Tribunal was gathered by the Head Table; Mr. Olson was sitting in the area normally reserved for the jury and Robert McKinley, the Case Presenter and Mike Berra, the IT guy for the firm were at the prosecutors Table. Jim noticed the flash of surprise on Bob's face when Henry placed a couple of folders of the table reserved for the defense. "Henry, a word in private," Bob called out.

"No need Bob," Henry replied "we're all family here."

"Okay, I'm just surprised that you agreed to be Jim's Advocate. When this came up in the Partner's meeting you were full bore for this hearing."

"Still am. The only thing that has changed is that I'm convinced that Jim isn't responsible for these acts."

"This is going to be interesting because it seems cut and dried to me," said Bob quietly. "If Jim didn't do these things then who did?"

"That is something we need to discover quickly as well as put procedures in place to prevent this type of thing from happening again."

"I've got a pretty good hand, so I'm going to play it to the max."

"No reason not to," said Henry. "Look when we go back to the firm they need to know that you did your best to convict Jim. Because once he is found not guilty we are going to need their help in getting to the bottom of this and designing and implementing new procedures to prevent future data breeches."

"Agreed," added Mr. Olson from the jury box.

After the case had been called, and the preliminaries had been taken care of Henry's opening remarks were clearly concise and on point. "We will prove that Jim is innocent of all charges." Bob's remarks were understandably longer.

"This case has three elements," began Robert McKinley, the Prosecutor for this case. "James Beckett established a storage account on the cloud. This is not against Company Police, but copying the Firm's work products to it is. Further the accused was paid for this activity via deposits in an off-shore bank account."

The first only witness for the prosecution was Mike Berra the IT person for the firm. Mike was a medium height, slightly overweight, dark haired man in his middle thirties. He had been the principle architect in moving the firm from a traditional paper based law firm to a firm that utilized the information grid as a tool. He was well respected and compensated by the firm.

Under Mr. McKinley's questioning, Mike reviewed that the investigation started as a result of an anonymous tip on the IT Hot Line. Mr. Berra had utilized the information in the tip to obtain the necessary permissions and warrants. Over the course of a month calendar time he had pieced together Jims cloud account, the files and the times that they were transferred and the payments in the off-shore account.

After Mike had logged into the account and showed the Tribunal the contents in the accounts directory Bob asked one of the key questions of the hearing. "What makes you absolutely certain that this is the accused account?"

"From the account Profile," Mike replied clicking keys until the display showed the information in the account profile, complete with billing information. "Only Jim knows this level of detail," said Mike with conviction. "And only he could set it up."

"So the likelihood of anyone else setting up this account is…"

"Nil, zilch, naught, null, and absolutely zero."

The next thing Bob and Mike established was that all of the transfers occurred from machines inside the firewall, which meant that Jim had to be on-site to perform them.

The last thing was the off-shore account where they showed the account profile again and a loose correlation between the file transfer dates and deposits into the accounts.

"Oh," said Bob. "Both of these accounts require userid's and passwords. How did you get them?"

"The tip suggested that Jim used the initials of his first and middle names plus his last name, not that unusual. The tip also suggested that the password was related to his daughter. We know her name is Katheryn but he calls her Katie. Katie worked for the cloud and Katie01 worked for the bank. "

"Thanks Mike. Henry he's all yours."

"Thanks. Permission to approach the witness Your Honor?"

"Granted."

"You're doing fine Mike. Take a deep breath and relax for a moment while I setup this easel, can we get you some water?"

"Sure Mr. Davis. A glass of water would be great."

"Bob, could you?"

"Sure, Your Honor?"

"Granted"

On the easel Henry placed a poster of the file transfer dates and times. "Mike your first task is easy. I need you to look at each entry on the poster and verify that it depicts the date and time of a file transfer."

"Give me a minute…They look good Sir."

"Please tell the Tribunal."

"Yeah right. The dates and times on the poster reflect the times of the file transfer events."

Next Henry took out a banner and affixed it to the bottom of the poster. "Is this Banner correct Mike?"

"Yes Sir. The person who transferred the files had to be physically present in our facility to do so."

"I hate to belabor the point, but are you absolutely sure?"

"Yes Sir I pulled the tapes and checked the session strings myself. The person who transferred the files was physically in our office space."

"Good. Now another thing. Do you have an Off-shore account at the same bank as Jim's?"

"No Sir. You guys don't pay me enough for something like that," he joked.

"Okay on not having and off-shore bank account, and a backhand attempt at requesting a raise," chuckled Henry. "Mike you interacted quite extensively with the Service Provider did you not."  
"Yes Sir they were quite helpful."

"Good, do you know if the files transferred there had been emailed to anyone, uploaded to a FTP site, or accessed by a third party."  
"Your Honor I don't see the point to this question. The accused transferred the files and that is that."

"Two points Bob, one if there was no transfer to a third party then the firm is not in as much trouble as we fear. The second point is why pay Jim if nothing was delivered?"

"You may answer the question."

"Sir, my looking wasn't all that extensive but I could find no evidence that the files have been touched."

"Tomorrow morning make that a priority."

"Yes Sir, kind of late for Jim."

"I'll take care of Jim today. We need your help to take care of the firm tomorrow. Okay?"

"Yes sir"

"Good, Mike do you mind logging onto your Cloud account and going to the Profile Page?"

"Sure, why?"

"It will become apparent soon."

Once the Profile page was displayed Henry asked, "Now on this laptop log onto your other account."

"I don't have another account."

"Of course you do Mike. The UserID is MEBerra01 and the password is the same with 01 added on the end. Now type please."

Mike looked from one Senior Partner to the other and finally to the most Senior Partner who smiled and nodded. Feeling like a goat staked out to attract a Tiger, Mike typed and wasn't surprised when he got to the Home screen of this account.

"Could you show us the directory please Mike."

"For the record this is not my account," said Mike as he complied with the instructions.

"Let me see, FOOD, NH, DS, OE, CONTACTS, interesting open the NH directory for me please….How about opening the third file please…. What's the Header say 'Intellectual Property of Richard Castle'…. Mike it looks like you have stolen some IP."

"Not my account Sir," said Mike defiantly.

`"Well the one way to be sure is to go to the Profile Page, Yes?"

"Mike please compare the Profile Pages between these two accounts and note the differences."

"They are identical Sir."  
"Conclusion?"

"They belong to the same person, me. Expect I didn't create the 01 account."

"If you didn't then who did?"

"I don't know Sir, but someone did."

"Several minutes ago you testified that there was zero chance that someone other than Jim set up the account. Do you still fell the same way?"

"I said there was absolutely zero chance and it looks like I was wrong."

"Is there a possibility that someone other than Jim set-up the account that the files were transferred into."

"Based on the existence of the 01 account I would have to say yes. "

"Thanks Mike I'm done. Bob?" When Bob shook his head Henry continued. "Your Honor I know it's unusual, but if Mr. Berra wishes to remain in the room and observe my client would not object."

"Most unusual," said Jennifer Campbell, the presiding member of the Tribunal as she looked to her colleagues.

"They're all part of the same firm, and if Henry and Bob are both okay with it I don't see the harm," said Sam Neely another member of the Tribunal."

"Mr. McKinley, any objection," asked Jennifer?

"None Your Honor. It helps keep the rumor mill in check."

"Okay, Mr. Berra you may stay if you wish. Remember you are bound not to disclose what you see and hear."

"Yes Ma'am I understand. I would like to stay."  
"You may step down and find a seat."

"The Prosecution rests Your Honor."

"Mr. Davis please call your first witness."  
"James Beckett"

After Jim had been sworn in Henry approached. "Comfortable Jim? Something tells me you're going to be in the seat for a while. Instead of us playing twenty questions, why don't you give the court declaratives on the issues of this case?"

"I didn't open the Cloud account. I didn't ask anyone to open the Cloud account for me. I don't know who opened the Cloud account. I did not transfer the files. I did not ask anyone to transfer the files for me. I don't know who transferred the files. I did not open the off-shore account. I did not ask anyone to open the account for me. I do not know who opened the account. I do not know where the deposits in the account came from…. How'd I do?"

"A perfect ten for ten. Now let's talk about the Cloud account."

"I didn't set it up. But I can't prove I didn't either. That's one of the things that made this an almost perfect ambush."

"What about Mr. Berra's statement?"

"He only said that there was a possibility that someone other than me setup the account. He never said I didn't do it."

"What about the 01 account?"

"Just proof that someone with a little bit of information can create an account."

"What about the responsibilities of the Service provider?"  
"And they are," Jim retorted? "Look to them everything checked out, name address, billing information. There was nothing there to draw a second glance."

"Except that it was bogus."

"This is one of the things we need to make the greater community at large aware of.

"Point. So recap the Cloud account."

"I didn't set it up, but I can't prove I didn't. Mr. Berra admitted to the possibility that someone could have set it up in my name."

"Well what can you prove?"

"Mr. Berra said that all of the transfers occurred while I was in the office. On one of the transfers I can absolutely prove I wasn't in the office and on several others I can show how it would have been extremely difficult to make it from where I was back to the office in time to make the transfer. And on those occasions you will see that I have absolutely no motivation to do so."

"Okay, let's begin. Which transfer?"  
"The third from the top. If you check the itinerary from my expense report you will see I was in an aircraft heading to Dayton to meet with a client. It was an emergency meeting that was not on my calendar."

Henry place an "On Travel" flag by the entry on the poster board and handed copies of Jim's expense report to Bob and the Tribunal members.

"Any others?"

"The eleventh from the top. This one will be by inference."

"Inference, go on."

"It was a Tuesday Afternoon, one of the most memorably Tuesday Afternoon's in my life. You see my daughter was arriving home from the hospital with her first child, my grandson and my namesake, James Alexander Castle." Jim went into a picture file and selected an item. "I know the date time group on this picture is an hour and some change before the file transfer, but if anyone thinks that I came back to work they are completely mistaken. In fact my daughter and son-in-law had to strong arm me out of the Loft around nine o'clock that night so they could go to bed. I didn't log many billables that day."

"You logged three Jim," said Henry as he placed a "Loft" flag near that entry and provided everyone with a copy of the picture and Jim's timesheet for the week.

"Any others?"

"Third one below that. Thursday night football Giants vs. Cowboys. You see Castle, my son-in law, and I are Giants fans. My daughter not so much. So on Sundays and nights like this one I go over to the Loft, my son-in-laws place, and watch football. Now I've got an additional reason to do so. If you notice the date time group on this picture it occurred one minute prior to the data transfer. As you can see by the picture," it showed Jim feeding James, "I'm not about to go running back to the office to do a file transfer."

"Okay," said Henry as he passed out the picture and added "A Loft" flag to the poster.

"Any others?"

"Two more football Sunday's."

After Henry had flagged the file transfer dates on the poster and passed out the pictures. He asked, "Jim, if you were out of the office on these dates and times, why would someone think that you are still in the office?"

"My car."

"Your car? Explain please."  
"We all have assigned spots in the parking garage so if a person wanted to see if I was in the office without coming around to my office all he or she would have to do is check the garage."

"But apparently this is not the case."

"No. When I travel I leave my car in the garage. It's cheaper and less stressful to cab it to the airport then try to find parking at the airport. I know we bill the customer for expenses, but airport parking is outrageous."

"That explains the travel day. What about the others."

"On a typical football Sunday I'm in the office before seven, cab it to the church where I met my daughter and son-in law. They take me to their home, lunch, football then back to the office for a couple of hours then home."

"So for most of the day your car is her, but you are not."

"That's correct."  
"Okay we've covered the Cloud account, and the file transfers, what about the bank account?"

"The first time I heard about it was in the conference room when you said the firm had requested an Ethics hearing based upon my activities. I guess it's mine now. Any way I'm going to put it to the test. "

"Put it to the test what do you mean?"

"Know that I know the account number, userid and password I'm going to transfer the money to my NYC account and close it before it gets ugly."

"What do you mean gets ugly?"

"Suppose someone set-up an account in your name, and funded it with one and a half million dollars. Withdraws a million two weeks later then deposits a million a week later. Let's say they repeat the process for a couple of years and on the last withdraw they leave you with twenty-five thousand. The IRS is tipped off and you get audited. Each deposit looks like a million dollars in income. By the time they tax you for the income you didn't earn and the late fees you could be in a world of hurt."

"But it wasn't your account. "

"Yeah, but how do you prove it?"

"Just like now?"

"Yes just like now!"

"Okay, why don't you bring up the home page of the bank and let's see if anyone else here has an account there. Let's start with Mike. Initials and last name for a userid, I think. Password? His wife's name is Karen so Karen01?"

When the screen transitioned to the welcome screen, Mike groaned, "This is not my account."

BAM went the gavel, "Order please," commanded Jennifer Campbell.

"Go to the Profile page please Jim." As the display appeared on the big screen, Mikes groan became louder. " Let's see NYC address, I know the work number is Mike's and I'm pretty sure the cell number is his too. Let's check recent transactions. Ah, deposit on Sunday."

"Let's exit here and try someone else."

"How about Bob?"

"Okay"

"Your Honor I…. "

"Yes Mr. McKinley?"  
"I just realized that I'm not going to like what I'm about to see. There's nothing I can do about it so I might as well enjoy the ride."

Like Mike's account Bob's account had a deposit on Sunday.

The tension in the room was high when Henry and Jim revealed that each member of the Tribunal had a bank account, and each had a deposit on Sunday.

"What a coincidence," said Henry trying hard not to grin. "The chief witness against you, the Prosecutor, and each member of the Tribunal has an off-shore bank account and each had a deposit on Sunday."  
"My daughter is a NYPD Detective and she doesn't belief in coincidences."

"Well Jim, the only thing I can think of is that someone paid these people to hang you."

BAM! BAM! "Mr. Davis you will withdraw that remark immediately," demanded Jennifer Campbell.

"Oh relax Jen," said Mark Adkins the Senior Partner of one of the largest law firms in the city. "That remark isn't going anywhere. Henry only said it for effect."

"And it hit home," added Sam Neely, the other member of the Tribunal. "Well done, well done indeed."

"Jen", began Mark "By setting up the bank accounts with the same deposit dates they put us in the same box that Jim is in. Right now we can't prove we didn't set-up the accounts and the circumstances sure make it look like we've been bought. That is exactly the state that Jim is in. They just showed how ridiculously easy it is to frame someone. Tom can I count on your support when we talk to the legislatures about this problem?  
"Absolutely," replied Mr. Olson. "Assuming Jim is still working for me after the hearing, he'd be my point person."

"Why not," replied Mark.

"I think we've covered the bank account in enough detail. So let's switch to one thing that the Prosecution didn't bring up motive. I guess it was assumed that money was the motivating factor. This is a summary of Jim's finances and expenses," said Henry.

"As you can see he has done well for himself. If you look at his disposable net worth you can see if he realizes a modest three per cent return his income will outpace his expenses. This positive gap will increase when we factor in his pension and social security…. I think we've covered everything. Bob he's your witness."

As Bob got out of his chair he stole a look at Mr. Olson, the most senior partner in the firm. Mr. Olson was gently shaking his head no.

"Jim I've only got one question. What are you going to do with the money from the account?"

"After I pay the taxes and penalties, the rest will go into an educational trust fund for my grandkids. I don't know how many Rick and Katie are going to have, or how I'm going to word it to prevent the perpetual student syndrome, or the endgame distribution, but the money is definitely going to my grandkids. "

"I'm through with this witness your honor."

"Mr. Davis?"

"The defense rests Your Honor."

In a couple of minutes Beckett was about to start the end of shift case review they always did, and today the Team had nothing. She knew the results of their inquiries and knew they had no other leads or clues. In her mind she knew she was going to suggest what her heart and ego hated, admitting that they were nowhere and additional time on this case would be wasted. "I got it Javier," said Beckett as Esposito was about to start the review.

"Captain we are stuck on this investigation and I'm recommending that we place it on the back burner. We have two leads. One is the scout woman. The sketch has been distributed if she's recognized I'm sure our people will pick her up. I've given the sketch to the Feds. Their facial recognition program came up with nothing so that lead is a dead end right now. The other lead is the Ajax bar. The Feds took a run at the place and came up empty. I really don't think we can do better."

"What are the Feds expectations," asked Captain Gates?

"As far as the Feds are concerned, our phone work has helped them with their primary mission, finding the leak at Pine Gap. I don't know the result of the FedEx package check, but our phone work gave them a suspect pool of only five. As far as the double homicide is concerned, it's strictly a NYPD affair."

"Recommendation approved," said Captain Gates.

Kate hugged her goodbyes with Amy, their nanny, checked on a sleeping James and then preceded into the bedroom to secure her weapon and credential. After she had changed into her 'house clothes' she went to the table by the door to sort the mail. Over the years she had gotten used to seeing the wide variety of magazines and periodicals that Castle subscribed to, today her attention was drawn to a large brown stiff envelope. 'Photos do not bend' read the label. 'No return address, now who would be sending me pictures,' thought Kate?  
Dropping the rest of her mail by her chair, she carried Castle's mail and the envelope into his office. After depositing his mail in his in-box, Kate snuck a glance at the picture he kept of her and smiled. She fished a pocket knife out of the middle drawer of his desk. Slitting open the envelope she extracted the photos and felt her heart leap to her throat. The first photo clearly showed Castle in the arms of another woman. By the sixth photo it was clear that Castle and the woman were having an intimate relationship. Kate's emotions ran faster than her heart and her head. She was alternately afraid, upset, angry, and just plan pissed. The emotional charge was so high that Kate either wanted to scream or hit something.

Prior to the last page was a printed message, PowerPoint her Detective mind finally said, finally catching up to her. Displayed on the last photo were an alarm clock and a newspaper. Using a magnifying glass Kate read the date on the newspaper. "You're off the hook Richard Edgar Castle," Kate whispered out loud. 'I knew it all along' her heart said. 'You should listen to me.' 'Me too,' added her head.

Kate took a deep breath and cleared her head. 'The wedge' she thought. 'It hurt, to be sure, but it wasn't going to drive them apart.'

"About time," Kate said as her phone rang. It was Castle. "Hey Babe, what's the verdict?"

After an hour Castle looked up from his tablet to the door of the meeting room, 'They've been in there a long time. Admit it Castle you have no idea how long a hearing like this takes. The Zombies have kicked my ass enough I guess I'll try writing some.' Castle pulled up the outline for and Opinion-Editor piece he had just started. After making adjustments he started the introduction. An hour later he re-read what he wrote. 'Not bad. I need to shorten it up some. The audiences for these pieces are definitely different from the readers of my novels,' he thought. Castle looked at his watch, nearly end of shift time for Kate then back at the door that would not open. I guess I'll take a first pass at the conclusion.

Castle had just finished saving the piece when the door opened and the people came filing out. Jim's head was down as he neared Castle but there was a touch of smile on his lips.

"Pyrrhic victory," asked Castle?

"Yeah, because now we have to find the real culprit."

"Dinner plans"

"With the firm, it will be a combination celebration and planning session."

"If you guys get stuck I think I know a good Detective or two. One of them only works for stories."

"I'll take it under advisement," smiled Jim. "Give my love to Katie and Jim."  
"Count on it," said Rick as the two men hugged their goodbyes.

Finally, thought Kate as her phone rang. "Hey Babe, what's the verdict?"

"Do you need me bring anything home for dinner?"

"Yeah, my Dad."

"Going to be tough, considering he's off celebrating."

"You mean…?"

"Yep!"

"Good! Hurry home, we need to talk."

"The wedge," asked Castle hearing the hurt tone in Kate's voice?

"It missed, but it still hurts."

"I'll make us some mac &amp; cheese when I get home."

"Comfort food sounds good, but I do it. You just hurry home."

On her way back to the kitchen Kate heard the unmistakable sounds of stirring in the bassinet. "Is my Little Tiger awake," Kate asked softly as she peeked into the bassinet. "Yes and stinky too. Come on then. I'll clean you up and you can help me make dinner."

After cleaning James up, Kate but James into a carrier, configured the carrier as a chair and placed it on the countertop which was the de facto center of all the Lofts activities. "Now you can watch Mommy make dinner," Kate began. "Your Dad is an amateur gourmet cook. And his dinners, while great to eat, take a long time to make. Your Mom has always been a workaholic with never enough time to make dinner. So I use shortcuts," said Kate as she put a pair of chicken breasts in the microwave.

"I can't wait until your old enough to eat solid food and join us at the table. Tonight I'm making macaroni and cheese. I predict it will be one of your all-time favorites. "

Kate kept talking as she finished preparing the chicken, made the salads, and prepped the mac and cheese and the rolls. The more she talked the more the ache in her heart seemed to lessen. She had just finished setting places for Castle and herself at the countertop when she heard the front door open and a familiar voice cry out "Kate?"

"In the kitchen, why don't you hang up your coat and meet me in your office." Kate put the rolls in the oven, set the timer, started the mac and cheese on low and moved into the office to await her husband's arrival.

"Kate," Castle asked when he approached the door to his office.

"Look at the pictures on the table." She watched the emotions place play across his face.

"Kate I …"

"Did you read the message the bastard left me?"

"Yeah, 'While the goose is stuffed the gander stuffs other goose.' That's a sick joke."

Kate nodded. She didn't tell Castle that that was one of her deepest fears. She feared that as she grew more and more pregnant, Castle would no longer find her attractive and he would seek the charms of another woman. She knew that Castle had been faithful to her, but this series of photos and the message played on her fears. "Use the magnifying glass and look at the time and date in the last picture. … Do you remember what you were doing at that time?"

"I'd rather show you," said Castle with a smile as he backed away from the table, approached Kate and held out his arms which Kate easily flowed into.

"Let me see I had just grabbed the ass," Castle said as he repeated the action now, "of a very sexy, very beautiful, and very pregnant woman. Who, luckily for me happens to be my wife."

"I think I did this," said Kate as she gently slapped Castle's check, "and this" as she went up on her tip toes and pulled Castle's head down for a kiss.

"I guess staying with you during your Doctor's appointment instead of running to catch the afternoon flight was the smart thing to do."

"Yeah, now who is she and how do you know her?"

"Her name is Susan Southerly and she is the regional manager for New England of the book store chain where I do readings and book signings. Before you ask I see her each time I go to Boston for a book related event. We do manage to keep our clothes on."

Kate chuckled at Castle's attempt at a joke. "When," she asked in a small voice?

"It was about a week and a half after we saved the city from the nuclear bomb," Castle said flatly.

"There's more isn't there?"

"Ancient history, leave it buried."

"Castle," Kate implored.

Castle kept his arms around Kate's waist, looked away for a moment than back to Kate's face. "While I was waiting, wondering if I was going to die of radiation poisoning I realized that I really loved you. When I asked about Josh, you told me want you wanted in a relationship, but you never looked at me," said Castle in a sad voice. "Before I could tell you how I felt we were released."

Kate waited. She knew that there was more to the story. After a moment he began again.

"After we disarmed the bomb I waited out in the bull-pen. When you came out of Captain Montgomery's office I was going to tell you but…"

"Josh showed up,"

"Yep, so I left …"

"And you had to watch the woman you love in the arms of another man."

"Yeah," Castle replied gloomily.

"Sooo she was a rebound girl," Kate said in a light tone.

"Being a Celtics fan, she'll never play for the Knicks, but yes you can say she was a rebound girl."

Just as they were about to kiss the oven timer went off. "Damn" Kate said as she gave Castle a quick peck on the lips. "Let's go eat. "

Dinner was a quiet, intimate affair. Each was happy just to be with the other. Afterwards they say sat side-by-side holding hands with Kate's head on Castle's shoulder. Their moment together was interrupted by a muted protest by James.

"Hungry Tiger," Kate asked? "Feeding or clean-up?"

"Clean-up," replied Castle without a moment's hesitation. Kate wasn't surprised. Castle was as finicky about his kitchen as any master chief.

Kate was still feeding James when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She moved her head to trap it between her shoulder and her cheek. A moment later she felt Castles other hand on the other side and when Castle started to give her a neck rub she leaned forward to expose more of her back. "Mister" she gasped "You certainly know how to treat a lady." Just as things were starting to get interesting her phone rang.

"Detective Beckett's phone," said Castle.

"Hey Sergeant Rains… Beckett's here. She's feeding James. I'm going to have to exchange her phone for our son. "

"Detective Beckett. … Got it Sergeant….Castle we got a case."

"I'm going to sit this one out. Kate," he continued when he saw the expression on her face, "I'm still your partner in crime, but tonight I need to be your…"

…"Partner in life," she finished for him. "It's just that I feel naked when you don't have my back."

"Well if you're going to be naked…."

"Babe," chuckled Kate as she headed into the bedroom to change and retrieve her weapon and shield.

Castle was just placing James in the bassinet when Kate emerged from the bedroom. "I'll keep him with me while I write and put him in his crib later."

"Night Tiger," said Kate as she kissed her yawing sleepy son. Kate glanced at her Dad's watch. "Considering the time, waiting up is probably not a good idea."

"Okay, you can tell me about over breakfast."

"Deal." After a quick kiss the huntress left to protect the city and the scholar returned to his craft.

**Chapter 9 The Mid-week Blues. **

The next morning Kate woke up a couple of hours later than usual. "The case is a domestic assault," she said over breakfast. "We're sure that the guy killed his live in girlfriend. We would have had him to, except that he jumped from roof top to roof top and the distance he cleared was at least twenty two feet."

"That's a pretty good jump."

"Yeah, today we are going to checkout his known haunts. We got his description out there so when he surfaces we'll reel him in."

"Be careful. I worry when I'm not with you."

"I will. Did you talk to Dad yet about yesterday?"

"Yeah, I called him early this morning. It seems that he and his daughter have a similar trait. They're both workaholic's.

"I'm reforming," Kate said. "What did he have to say?"

"He said the off-shore accounts drove the point home with a sledge hammer. He also said that Mr. Olson has made him the point person to work with the legislators to craft laws limiting people's exposure to things like this."

"That's a good thing."

"He also asked if we would object if he used the money from the off-shore account to set-up an educational trust fund for our kids. I told him he should use some of the money to do something he always wanted to do like go the camp the Yankees offer for baseball want-a-bees."

"That's a good idea. I'd like to do that. What did you tell him about the trust fund?"  
"You throw like a girl. I told him I had no objections, but I would have to clear it with the boss first."  
"Good answer. I'll call Dad from work to day. Plans?"

"I also asked your Dad for some help on an Op-Ed piece I started while I sitting outside the meeting room yesterday. He agreed."

Kate noticed that the paper was open to the editorial section, "Any significance?"

"Two more character assassinations, but they were so poorly written they were laughable."

"You okay?"

"Yeah, the pieces were noise without substance….In the afternoon when Amy comes back from her volunteer nurse's shift; I'd thought I would drop in on the downtown investigation. After that I had planned to drop in at the 12th and escort my wife home."

"I like the last part of your plan." Kate got up, hugged her husband, and after checking on her son she went to work.

Between feeding, changing, and playtime Castle actually got a lot of quality writing accomplished. When Amy showed up, it was almost the perfect transition. Castle had just started to read to James, Amy took over, and Castle changed and was on his way down to the FBI building.

The non-enclave side of the Task Force spaces was just like the last time Castle visited, empty. The white boards still only held target ids and surveillance schedules. Still reactive Castle thought. On a whim he sat down at an empty terminal signed in and went to the Castle web-site.

A few minutes later a familiar voice said, "I saw that you logged in."

"So we came over to chat," added another familiar voice.

"Ladies you are more than welcome."

"Couldn't you that from home," teased Kelly when she saw that Castle was logged onto the Castle fan web site.

"I could, but I wasn't thinking about it there, but I'm here now and I am."

"What are you babbling about," laughed Arisu?

"We think that the posting of the puzzle marks the opening of the sale period for the intelligence nugget, Right? But when does the sale stop?"

Kelly looked at Arisu who just shrugged. "I suppose you have an idea."

"Yeah I do. Look. For each of the previous puzzles a solution has been posted. The solutions are bogus of course because they don't match the length of the encoded message but they provide a nice touch. They didn't make sense to me. Maybe you guys have someone who could read the answers and determine if it was a male or female or something else about the author."

"And our current puzzle," asked Kelly.

"Still open for business. How are the code breakers coming?"

"They say they have four or five more sequences to run and since each sequence takes about twelve hours to complete."

"We'll know if I was barking up the right tree no later than Friday. Look I'm sorry if I …"

"They had four samples to analyze for several months and had run out of approaches," said Arisu. "So don't beat yourself up."

"How's the cell phone hunt going?"

"We got our man," said Kelly with a touch of pride. "None of the deliveries went directly to any of our suspects, but one of them went to a mailbox store."

"And the mailbox was in the name of one of the suspects?"

"We weren't that lucky. No she used her maiden name to rent the box. She just got married so she still had a valid driver's license in her maiden name. We are absolutely sure she is involved, but we aren't sure she is the only one involved. When we throw the net over them we don't want any of the fishes getting away."

"That takes care of supply side, what about distribution? If you throw the net and the distribution guys find out about it before you can get them to talk they go to ground."

"How are they going to know?"

"Nobody shows up in the chat room?"

"Makes sense, we have to hope the code breakers come through."

"Assuming you net the supply side, break the code and corral the distribution network, has anyone thought of posting a bogus message and the message has a surprise package inside like reporting where it's at, maybe sending back files or destroying the hard drive."

"I like how you think Castle," cooed Arisu.

"You would. Listen buying and stealing state secrets is an honorable pastime rich with history and tradition. What you are suggesting might be considered an act of cyberwar."

"I would agree if we sent in a team of agents to purposely infect their computers, or hacked into their machines and inserted malware. This is more like they bought and installed a freeware app without running it through their virus checker. Think about it. Some extra coins to fund operations and payback."

"If we don't do the special packages then we could sell deceptive packages," said Arisu. "Deceiving your enemy is also an honorable pastime rich with history and tradition."

Kelly laughed, "I'll suggest it to the boss and see if he'll staff it. Knowing the Admiral he just might….How's the homicide investigation coming?"

"Kate, Esposito and Ryan are out of clues and ideas. The only lead they got is the sketch of a woman who may or may not have acted as a scout for the ambush team. When they got no hits on the facial recognition play and you guys said that Ajax was a dry hole they're kind of stuck."

"They're work on the phones and especially the cell phone really made our case."

"Kate knows that," Castle admitted, "but…It's Kate," said Castle reaching for his phone.

"Castle they got our guy trapped in an apartment building, but he has hostages. SWAT is on-scene and a hostage negotiator is on his way. It's our case so we're heading down to the scene."

"Kate…"  
"I won't do anything Castle-like and volunteer to go inside."

"You did before."

"I know. That was because someone special was inside…. I'll probably be late for dinner, kiss James for me. Love you Babe. "

"Stay safe love."

"Kate's case," Castle announced to the room as he got up and headed toward the door, "Hostage situation….I'll think I'll head home now."

"Marshal," said Kelly breaking into Castle apparent funk. "Kate will be okay. You've earned your pay today and I think the code breakers will be successful."

"Thanks," Castle mumbled as he headed for home.

**Chapter 10 A Picture is worth a thousand lies.**

Castle woke to the sound of Jim's calls. 'No distress yet, more like I'm awake let's play,' smiled Castle. He turned to his right and looked over at Kate. She was sleeping on her side with her back to him. He lifted his head and looked at her sleeping face. 'She looks as beautiful as ever,' he thought. 'Another late night. I hope the hostage got out okay. 'Castle looked back at the baby monitor when he heard James again. 'Coming son,' thought Castle. He turned off the baby monitor, rose, put on his bathrobe and went to start the day with his son.

Kate groaned when the alarm went off at nine-thirty. The breech had gone off without a hitch at a little after three and her Team had made it home around four-fifteen. The plan was to show-up around eleven, make sure the paper work was complete and knock-off a bit early. Yesterday had been a long day.

After showering and dressing for work, Kate headed for the kitchen. She found the coffee pot half full and a sign on the fridge that said 'Omelet' and an arrow pointing toward Castle's office. After pouring and taking a sip of her coffee, Kate gathered the sign and headed toward Castle. Looking into the office she saw Castle, with James on his lap, sitting in front of his laptop and Amy, with a grin on her face, was sitting behind him in a position to look over his shoulder.

"Let's tell Darius80922 that the idea of Nicky Heat helping Derrick Storm while she is on her honeymoon is a little farfetched. I'm sure Rook would be keeping Nicky very busy."

"You remember what we did on our honeymoon don't you?"

"I sure do," said Castle with a grin.

"Not those things," replied Kate, her cheeks touched with pink, "I mean the murder we solved."

"We solved a murder," asked Castle incredulously? "I must have solved it in my sleep."

"More like I solved it while you were sleeping," retorted a fully recovered Beckett. She held up the 'Omelet' sign "Yes please!"

"I'll take James," said Amy. "He's about played out. Ten minutes of story time and he'll be out for a little while."

"What are you reading," asked Kate?

"A Ben Franklin biography."

"I'm reading the 'Hobbit'. Castle?"

"Whatever magazine article I'm reading at the time. Can I make something for you Amy?"

"Not an omelet."  
"How about a bacon and egg sandwich?"

"Okay, that sounds fine."

"I guess I'll start a fresh pot of coffee," said Kate.

Over breakfast Kate described the hostage situation as long, boring, but with a perfect ending. "The breech went off a little after three, and two of the SWAT members said the suspect must have been asleep, because he didn't react to the gas at all. When they scooped him up he was blinking and coughing. The hostages were unharmed and asleep too. An almost perfect rescue, there were no shots fired, and the only damage to the building was a broken window. Today all we plan to do is make sure the paperwork is complete and knock off early because yesterday was a long day. Any word on how our other case is going?"

"Thanks to the cell phone, they have one confirmed member on the supply side identified. They're watching and waiting. When they pounce they want to bag the lot. We're still waiting on the code-breakers before we can roll-up the distribution network. "

"I need to be off," said Kate as she looked at her Dad's watch. Went Kate went to work, Castle went into the bedroom to clean up. It was perhaps an hour later and Castle had just finished choreographing the fight scene when his cell phone rang with no caller identification available.

"Castle," said an excited Kelly Johnson. "Grab Kate and get your collective asses down here. The code-breakers came through and we need to plan what happens next."

Castle called Kate, got routed to voice mail and decided to go the precinct and collect Kate himself.

Castle rushed off the elevator and into the Bull-pen only to find Esposito and Ryan sitting at their desks with long faces and no Kate. "Beckett?"

"She's in the Conference Room," replied Kevin.

"With Internal Affairs, wait you can't go in there Bro," said Esposito as he watched Castle walk toward the door.

"Your right," said Castle. "Mr. Castle can't go in there, but Deputy United States Marshal Castle, who's on Official Business can." They watched him remove his credential from his inside jacket pocket and placed it around his neck.

"You can't go in there," said the officer seated outside the door.

"I'm Deputy United States Marshal Castle and I need to fetch Sergeant Beckett."

"I don't care who you are," said the Officer as he got up and tried to push Castle in the chest.

Castle deflected the attempted shove with a basic inside out block with his right arm. Grabbing his assailant's right wrist Castle twisted it behind his assailant's back and pushed him into the conference room window. As he did so, Castle slew footed him to keep him off balance and deftly with his left hand extracted the Officers handcuffs from the holder on his belt. After snapping the handcuff on the Officer's left wrist, Castle managed to pull the arm down and fasten the cuff to his right wrist. After setting the surprised Officer down into his chair Castle opened the door and walked into the Conference Room.

"Did you see that Javier?"

"Yep a Federal Officer clearly identified himself and his mission and an idiot tried to push him away."

"I mean how Castle did it."

"Yeah. After all these years I think he's finally worthy to watch Kate's back."

"Shall we go calm the idiot down?"

"No," said Esposito, "I'll call LT. Let him deal with it."

"Mr. Castle, this does not concern you. Leave now before I press charges," said a slightly overweight, medium height man with brown hair sitting at the other end of the table and whose dark suit and club tie screamed Police Captain.

"I'm Deputy United States Marshal Castle," Castle began in a clear strong voice. "I've been ordered by my Task Force Commander to fetch Sergeant Beckett so that she could participate in the next phase of a Federal Investigation. "

"Castle," Kate asked softly?

"They broke the code," he replied. "We need to decide on how to roll-up the New York segment."

'Oh" said Kate soundlessly.

"I don't freaking care," said the Officer who had address Castle before. "Officer Edwards, escort from the precinct, and if he doesn't comply, arrest him. "

As the Officer got up from his seat Castle replied in a voice colder as and harder than Kate had ever heard. "Easy there Officer. I AM a Deputy United States Marshal. I am investigating a case involving espionage against the United States. You would be actively obstructing my investigation. That could make the top count of the indictment Treason. So think about it. How much quality time as a guest of the government do you wish to have? Because once I ask for the Warrant it will be issued and once it is served I WILL not drop the charges. Interagency co-operation be damned."

Officer Edwards stopped dead in his tracks and looked back at his boss, who remained silent. As the silence lengthened, Castle reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his phone. As he was about dial when Beckett stood up and grabbed both of Castle's hands.

"This is what's going to happen," Beckett said after she had locked eyes with Castle. "The Marshal will escort me from this room. One I really have to use the can and two my husband will buy me a bottle of water, and perhaps make himself a cup of coffee. We will sit in the break area and I will explain to him and the Marshal what is going on and in my opinion taking the polygraph is the shortest and easiest path to take. Sara I suggest you use the time to set-up and refine the question list."

"And Captain Roberts, if Marshal Castle were to call the duty officer for the Task Force which is operating out of the seventh floor of the FBI building and ask for a Warrant for your arrest, it would be written. For you see he IS a Deputy United States Marshal and a valued member of the Task Force."

"Oh and Captain the people serving the warrant, … well individually the people serving the Warrant make James Bond look like a bumbling grade-school kid. As a team they are… You could hide in the Plaza and surround yourself with all of the SWAT units in NYC and they would still find a way to extract you. … Shall we Marshal?"

They turned to leave the room only to find their way blocked by the LT. "LT," said Kate "Could you uncuff Officer Jensen please. He seems to have gotten in the Marshal's way as he was coming to fetch me."

The LT. looked at Captain Gates who nodded then turned and let them pass.

"I should press charges," groused Captain Roberts, the Chief of Internal Affairs after Beckett and Castle had left the room.

"Tom, don't call me as a witness," said Inspector Williams, the Chief of Detective's right hand man for discipline. "What I saw and heard was a credentialed Federal Officer come in, properly identify himself and his mission and then being threatened. Be thankful that Beckett has agreed to take the polygraph, considering you have nothing but a rumor and doctored photographs. I can't believe you did nothing to collaborate the evidence before confronting Beckett."

"Sara, why don't you set-up in Interrogation one," said Captain Gates. "Come back and we will help you refine your question deck."

"That seems like a good idea Sir," agreed Sarah, the chief polygraph administer for Internal Affairs.

"Do you think that that fop really is a Deputy United States Marshal" asked Captain Roberts?

"This is the third time that I have knowledge of," replied Captain Gates.

"Unbelievable," replied Captain Roberts.

"That fop" said LT. sarcastically "Has an asp in his right hand coat pocket. "An asp is…"

"A collapsible combat baton. I know what an asp is," said Roberts. "What's your point Lieutenant?"

"Mr. Castle has mastered the baton. I don't mean he knows how to extend it and defend himself. I mean master it like an old-time master swordsman. In a room this size, he could draw the weapon in an eye blink. The people he wanted to be hurt would be hurt. The people he wanted to be dead would be dead and the rest of us would be well served to keep our hands is plain sight. I agree with Detective Esposito. If Castle has his baton in his hand the only way I would want to engage him would be with a rifle from a hundred yards."

The Lieutenant saw the looks of disbelief on the faces of the people in the room and continued. "Look, when he and Beckett spar in the gym they use quarterstaffs. They kept breaking the batons. When they spar almost all other activity stops. And it's not just how Beckett fills out her sweat pants and shirt. It stops because people are watching something special. It's kind of like that scene in the movie where the pilot sparred with his potential co-pilots. "

"'Pacific Rim'," said Captain Gates.

"Yes, 'Pacific Rim' thank you Sir. They go at it for two to three minutes sometime longer. After a touch they go back to the center of the mat and start again. I mean it's like watching a class B martial arts movie. Except when they finish you realize it's just Beckett and Castle and they didn't use stunt doubles or props. About a year ago ten of us with night sticks jumped them after their workout. Ten seconds later I'm lying on my back on the side of the mat after being tripped by Castle and wacked by Beckett. Fifteen seconds after that, when the sounds of the fight die down I hear Castle yell 'The next time you guys show up at the Olde Haunt you're buying us a beer! 'Ahem' I said and all I could think about was how did Castle and Beckett get that good."

"So, Batons are nice, but we've got guns," retorted the Captain.

"I could tell you stories about guns and Castles," mumbled the Lieutenant.

Inspector Williams looked at the LT. and smiled. "Johnny Ray Lewis, you know him Tom," asked the Inspector?

"Sure, he's been the reigning Pistol Champion for at least the last five years running. "

"Yeah he is. He's out of the 57th. In his locker is a large size transparent envelope. In it he keeps one of his target silhouettes. On the front like usual is his name and date, along with the signature of the range officer. If you were to unfold the target you would see that it's damn fine shooting. Maybe eight or nine points away from being a perfect score. You know how rare that is? Never mind. On the back written in his on hand are two words 'Second Best'. You know who outshot him on the day when he was eight points away from a perfect score. …. Beckett's husband, Richard Castle."

"Inspector Briscoe," laughed the Lieutenant. "As Division Chief for Community Outreach and Morale he knows how to improve the morale of the serving officers."

"By giving them a paid weekend day off," said the Inspector with a laugh.

"Right, and he's always looking for ways to do that. He awards those officers who work with community groups, Officers who do something special that probably won't result in a citation. Anything and everything he can think of to justify some time off. One Friday as I was at the range getting a practice round in before my annual qualification when the Inspector walked in. He walked the line and stopped behind Beckett. Maybe it was because Beckett is a woman, or that she was shooting left handed I don't know. After she had her target scored, a low Sharpshooter by the way, he challenged her. If she could outshoot him she would get a weekend day of. If she lost she would take the place of one of her teammates and they would get the day off."

"The lanes were pretty full with people getting practice sessions in, so they decided to share a lane with the Inspector shooting first. After he had his target scored, a high Sharpshooter result, he, Ryan, Esposito and I watched Beckett shoot. Midway through the Detective's round he pipes up and says 'She's shooting right handed!' "

"'That's because she is'," said Esposito.

'But I saw her shoot left handed.' said the Inspector.

'You did' said Ryan. 'We all practice with our off hands ever since a certain gentlemen asked us what we would do if we couldn't hold a weapon in our primary hand and we were faced with a hostage situation. Would we be too afraid to act and the let the bad guys walk away or would we be confident enough to act?'

'The question both pissed me off and embarrassed me,' said Esposito. 'So the next time I came down to the range I shot a clip using my left hand. I stunk.'

"By this time, Beckett had finished shooting and was bringing her target back to be scored," continued the Lieutenant. "After her low Expert score had been established the Inspector congratulated her on winning the bet and asked her if she hustled men in other activities. When Beckett replied 'just cards and pool' I thought the Inspector would never stop laughing."

"'Oh by the way the man who asked the question about us willing to watch our partners die because we were incompetent with our off-hands is my husband and he can beat this,' said Beckett pointing to her target with his off-hand.'"

"True to his word in a couple of weeks later he took Beckett's shift, and after that he took a shift for Esposito and Ryan. Isn't that right Captain?"

"Eh, what yes," Captain Gates hadn't been paying attention to the stories. She had been watching the entrance way to the break room ever since Beckett had entered. The Captain was hoping that Beckett could contain her husband. He had a right to be pissed. This IA investigation had no basis in fact and should have been dismissed, but instead they had come looking for Beckett's scalp. Instead she handed them theirs. They should have caught the time reference problem before they came over here, but they didn't and here they are.

If Beckett would have asked I would have counseled against taking the polygraph. Even if you are innocent you can still fail it. But she had agreed to take it. I t was a risk but one she was prepared to take. Add to that the ill treatment he received from Captain Roberts and Castle could go off-the handle. I sure hope Kate can contain him, Gates thought.

"Sirs," said Sarah, "I have a tentative question list that we need to refine. I have three main threads, adultery in general, cheating on the test, and trading of sexual favors. Remember the question must be clear, concise, and unambiguous. Also it must require a clear yes or no answer. Remember I will be asking each question a minimum of three times to catch inconsistencies. This is not an interactive interrogation. Any inconsistencies will be dealt with at another session. Oh and another thing, if you are in the observation room I do not want to hear a bit of noise. If I do I will stop the test clear the room and post a guard. Are we clear?"

"Yes," said Captain Roberts. "I think we all can live with that."

Great, thought Captain Gates with a sigh, I get to design questions to prove that the best Detective on the force is a liar, cheated on her Sergeant's exam, and has committed adultery.

When Kate entered the break area she wasn't surprised when Castle rose to get her chair for her, nor was she surprised that his face was unreadable. She smiled her thanks, sat down, opened the bottle of water and took a long drink. After she sat the bottle down on the table she reached out and grabbed Castle's hand. "You were right. This is their work related run at me, and another wedge. When we get home you're going to have to tell me how the research is coming."

Castle waited for Kate to continue, "Are we waiting…." He stopped when Esposito and Ryan came into view.

"Get your coffees and pull up a chair," said Beckett "and I'll let you know what's going on."

"IA investigations are supposed to be private," said Ryan.

"The best way to beat the rumor mill is with the facts, so get over here," replied Beckett.

After everyone had settled in, "It all centers on my promotion test," began Kate. "They allege that I traded sexual favors to get copies of the tests and again to know exactly which test I would be taking."

"Deming," exhaled Esposito.

Kate felt the tension through Castle's hand. "Deming," said Castle. "I thought he was a Detective in Robbery?"

"He was," replied Ryan. "He's taking his career broadening assignment in Personnel. He was the Project Officer for this cycle of promotion tests and boards. Cheating, and sexual favors, Kate if they can make this stick, then they can boot you from the force."

"I know," said Kate. "Castle the Force doesn't like it when their Officers screw around, but they're realists and for the most part they look the other way. There are several areas were they come down hard on the offender. The hardest area they hit is if you screw around on company time. The next is if there is a Command-Subordinate relation. Another is if you are married and the last is if you screw around for personal profit."

"Since you are married," said Esposito, "and you did profit by the activity that automatically escalates the charge to 'Conduct Unbecoming' which means a Review Board hearing and they could give you the hook."

"Yeah," said Kate, "Castle what's so funny?"

"I'm sorry," laughed Castle. "For a moment there I had a completely weird vision. In my mind I envisioned an escort service comprised entirely of female Police Officers."

"Castle," Kate said with heat she didn't feel! Secretly she was relived. Humor was Castle's way of coping. If he was trying to tell jokes it meant that he was trying to cope with the situation, and if he could cope than she could.

"What do they have," asked Esposito?

"They have an anonymous tip and two sets of photographs," said Kate. "The first set of photographs was obviously taken when I was dating Deeming; they were taken through the window of his place and are explicit enough. To make the pictures relevant they inserted a newspaper, but they screwed up. When that paper was published I was in Sacramento retrieving my husband. Who somehow or another got himself knocked off the road and down the side of a mountain."

"Like I had a choice," groused Castle.

"Why did they choose that date," asked Ryan?

"Probably because of the other set of photos," said Kate with a glance a Castle. "You guys remember the case we were working on at the time."  
"Yeah the robbery and the roof-top murder, and Castle was on a long book tour," said Esposito.

"Yeah, remember the day we drove the alleys and found the place where they swapped vehicles? I sent you guys back to the 12th and Deming and I waited for the Warrant and then the FBI." Kate took another drink from her water bottle to buy time and regain her composure. "Someone photographed us, and from this set of photos you can infer that Deming and I kissed. We didn't" added Kate quickly and forcibly. "He tried and failed."

"What," said an excited Castle? "Someone was shadowing you and took your picture without you knowing about it?"

"Apparently, and guys," said Beckett taking in her two partners, "we need to be a lot more observant when we go to crime scenes from now on. Apparently someone is watching." The moment of silence and the looks that passed between the partners was somber.

"Crap," said Esposito!

"Yeah," said Beckett. "I think they chose that date because of the alley photo set and the fact they would know Castle was out of town based upon the social calendar he keeps on his web-site. They probably thought that they could make the case that since we had a history we hooked back up during the case and later I took advantage of my 'feminine wiles' to persuade him to give me the material."

"If they would have chosen the day before….," conjectured Ryan.

"Exactly," said Kate. "As it is I'm going to have to admit that Deming and I were intimate when we were dating." After a moment of silence, Kate continued, "they think I cheated on the exam, and I didn't, and this,' she said holding up Castle's hand "is something I'm never going to let go of. Guys could we…?"

"Sure," chorused the Boys as they got up and headed back to their desks.

"Kate someone's stalking us…"

"…and it started before we were a couple."

"Who?"

"The only thing we had in common back then was my Mom's case."

"Being in prison won't stop him."

"…and they never found the money."

"Shit," whispered Castle as he locked eyes with Kate.

"Detective, Sarah is ready for you in interrogation room one," announced Captain Gates.

"Yes Sir, Castle sit, stay here," said Kate as Castle started to get out of his chair.

"What am I, a puppy dog," complained Castle with considerable heat?

"No Babe," countered Kate the anguish in her voice clearly evident. "You aren't a puppy. You're the man I want to spend the rest of my life with. You're the man who loves me some much that he will do anything and everything he can to protect me, to be with me, and I'm afraid of how you're going to act. You know they are going to ask me if I traded sex for help on the exam, and you know that they will ask the same question a dozen times in a dozen different ways. You know my answer. I'm just afraid that you will react and make a mess that can't be cleaned up."

"Kate I…."

"Sometimes when we go into an unplanned tactical situation I sneak a peek at you and you know what I see? Sometimes I see a tiger, a Siberian Tiger, you know the biggest badest hunting cat on the face of the planet. I 'm simultaneously scared and fortified. I'm scared because I know that there is danger in front of me. I'm fortified because I know nothing will get past the tiger at my back. I'm seen him in action. I've seen him shot to wound or disarm if he can, kill if he must. I've seen him pounce and pound an assassin into submission. I'm afraid that if he goes into the box with a room full of goats, one of them will bleat something inappropriate and there will be a tiger sized mess."

"So I'm not potty trained," sniped a grinning Castle.

"Castle," Kate started and then she saw the smile on his face. "Wait for me?"

"Always."

Kate smiled to Castle, "Sir" she nodded to Gate turned and hurried off her heels quickly tapping as she hurried toward interrogation room one. Castle would wait forever, but Kate had no intention of making him wait a second longer than necessary.

Captain Gates listened to the conversation and was drawn on by the story. Part way through she thought she saw two tigers growling at each other. The male was handsome and huge. His warning growl was threatening. The female was equally as beautiful and was gently swatting the males face, her growl no less fierce. He may be her lord and master, but she was putting him in his place. In the end Beckett turned and hurried toward interrogation room one, and Castle sat down at the break room table. "Marshal I want to apologize for the delay this … ah… proceeding is causing in your investigation."

"You don't need to worry about my ego Sir."

"I could care less about Mr. Castle's ego, but there is a U.S. Marshal in my house, and professional courtesy is something that he IS entitled to." Castle nodded and looked down at his empty coffee cup. The Captain returned the nod and hurried towards the monitoring room.

"Is your name Katherine Houghton Beckett? "

"Yes"

"Have you ever been intimate with Detective Deming?"

So it begins thought Kate. "Yes"

After a relative eternity Beckett finally heard, "That was the last question Sergeant," said Sarah. "Relax and I will unstrap you."

"Good …I" Kate stammered relieved to be finally finished. Sarah had just finished unstrapping Kate when Captain Roberts and Officers Edwards and Jensen entered the room. "Guys escort the Sergeant to the Conference Room please."

"She's clean Sir. She fluttered on no question. I can have my official findings for you in an hour, but she's clean and doesn't need to hang around.

"Conference Room," the Captain confirmed. After the Officers and Beckett had left, the Captain turned towards Sarah. "Look Sarah is there any chance she's lying? Maybe your equipment isn't calibrated properly? Maybe the questions were bad. Perhaps we should retest her?"

"Look Sir," said Sarah with a steely expression and extremely cold voice. "I've been administrating polygraphs for over fifteen years. I know how to interpret the results. Detective Sergeant Beckett is clean on the issues we put forth. She is negative for adultery, cheating on the exam, or using sex to gain an advantage prior to the start of the examination. There is no reason why she shouldn't be cleared of this allegation, and that will be my official finding."

"Yes, but what about…"

"Son of a Bitch," whispered Inspector Williams from the observation room. "Victoria, spring your Detective. The Captain and I need to have a chat."

Castle looked up as he heard Kate approach. Her badge was clearly visible on the outside of her coat, and the telltale bulge on her left side made it clear she was still under arms. "Ready," she asked?  
"You bet," answered Castle as he put on his coat and offered his arm to his lady for their walk to the elevator.

**Chapter 11 Chicken Florentine with a side of Secrets **

"What kept you," asked a smiling Agent Johnson.? "The code breakers have declared you a genius and a national treasure. I agreed that you should be kept locked up or kept under constant surveillance. Luckily for us you're married to a cop," Kelly gushed and winked at Kate.

"Did it work for all of the previous ones," asked an anxious Castle?

"Yes and if your hunch is right the purchase time for this one is still open."

"May I," asked Castle?  
"We," chirped Kate.

"Sure," smiled Kelly as she headed to the high side enclave. As she opened the door Castle stopped.

"Kelly, ah, we aren't."

"Yeah right, give me a second to sanitize," she said as the door closed behind her.

Kate leaned in and whispered "Congrats."

Castle grabbed Kate's hand and looked into her eyes. They hadn't talked about the polygraph on the way over. His raised eyebrow and stare was all the prompting Kate need. "Sarah cleared me on all counts. I think the Captain was after my head no matter the result. Anyway he and the Inspector were having a serious conversation when I left. I'm glad you didn't have to hear the questions or asked to see the pictures," she whispered.

"I don't need pictures," Castle said with a grin. "I married the real thing and she shares my life with me."

"Phrases like that could make you a very lucky man," said Kate in a husky voice she hadn't used since James birth.

"You mean luckier," asked Castle right before the door opened?

"Come in," said Kelly. "Knowing that Castle touches everything, including those things he shouldn't, everything classified he could possibly see has been locked away. The last message is on the screen. They are all like that. When you check in you ask to see the maître d'. You give him the catch phrase, you order the special dinner, with the bill you get the account number you need to deposit the money in and your receipt contains the URL, password, and file decryption phrase for the site that contains the file."

"We've already found a link between this one and the four previous restaurants. Right now we don't have a link to Pine Gap," offered Sam McKinley, the Team's Armorer and Explosives expert. "We'll find it eventually."

"Why do it this way," asked Castle?

"So they can vet us Babe," Kate replied at once.

"They probably will run our photos and finger prints while we eat. If they can't vet us, then no sale."

"Perhaps build a blackmail book for later if they need it," added Castle?  
Kate nodded her agreement.

"Right now we need to determine if the stuff is real or bogus."

"Okay, who are you sending in to make the buy?"

"There-in lays the problem," said a gloomy Kelly looking at a man near the white board at the front of the room. "We can't get the offshore account setup before tomorrow."

"Well Mrs. Castle are you up to an evening out at an Italian restaurant?"

"What Chicken Florentine with a side of secrets, I'm in," smiled Kate."

"Wait, what no," exclaimed Kelly! "I can't allow it! They'll recognize you."

"Not after Susan performs her magic," counter Kate quickly.

"Look Kelly the buy period could close tonight, I don't think you can afford to wait. I do have an off-shore account that can cover the purchase," added Castle.

"But the account is in your name," countered Kelly.

"Everyone uses a false account," countered Castle. "This is no different and perhaps they will appreciate the humor."

"Is that the account someone set-up for you," asked a small balding middle age man. "I'm Adam Jones from the Treasury?"

"Yeah," replied Castle. "Say Tom how does one expense something like this? I got an IRS audit next week and I'm probably good need the money back to pay the taxes."

"Oh I can take care of that," Adam said. "I'll just direct the auditor to ignore the off-shore account. Of course we won't reimburse you for the purchase."

"Fair I guess," shrugged Castle. "You can do that?"

"Sure," Adam replied.

Kate looked back at Kelly who was standing with her arms crossed in front of her and a very determined look on her face. "Susan disguises?"

"Can do, including false fingerprints."

"Arisu legends and digital cover" continued Kate?

"Several legends are available. Getting you and Castle out of the system will take the longest time to do, but won't be a problem."

"Max," continued Kate, "I assume you can provide physical cover?"

"We'll send one of Bill's Teams into the restaurant with you. You won't know them so yiu can't compromise them. The rest of us can cover your egress."

Kelly looked down then back up, "Susan?"

"I can cover them boss."

"Arisu?"

"No problems here. I'll need a picture to cement the legend, and we are setup to do that."

"Max?"

"Simple operation boss. Castle is right about the time critical nature of this and we do need to know if the information they are selling is real."

"Max plan and execute the op. Marshal, play devil's advocate."

"Yes Sir," they chorused.

"You are a married couple Dieter and Katarina Mayer," said Arisu. "Katarina you have married an American husband. So Castle let Kate handle anything in Russian."

"Dah."

"You are low level staffers in the Georgian Consulate in NYC and are here to study to American law enforcement techniques," continued Arisu. "So let Kate do the purchasing."

"Got it."

"Okay," began Max, "we will have a FBI Team in the restaurant, and they have a reservation fifteen minutes later than yours. They will be blind to you. They will now you but you will not know them. We will be deployed to provide a response if needed and to make sure you aren't followed when you leave. Your cover is simple, it's date night."

"I think we can handle that," said Kate with a smile in Castle's direction.

"Okay tell me how you are getting there and how are you getting from there to here."  
"Well we're going home to change," said Castle. "From there we take a cab to the Hilton downtown."

"We'll walk through the Hilton," Kate continued "and go to the cab stand in front of the Regency. From there will take another cab to 'The Fig Leaf' in Tribeca."

"Sounds good. How are you getting back here?"

"Carriage ride," asked Kate?

"We'll take a cab to Central Park and take a carriage ride. If anybody is following us it should become obvious to you guys and you can text us. If so we'll take a cab to the hotel walk through and catch another cab. If not we will come directly here. "  
"Okay, sounds good, but if that route is compromised what are you going to do," asked Marshal Dillon  
"Ah 'Second Curtain'", asked Castle looking at Kate?

"Timings right," Kate agreed. "We'll take a cab to the theater district. The prime time shows should be letting out. We'll get out of the cab and join the crowds heading toward the theaters that have late show times. We'll double back and grab a cab. It will look like we changed our mind about going to the show. We'll head back to the Hotel, do a walkthrough and end up here."

"Okay, sounds good. Cab switches with a logical reason and within the legend. I'll handle the outside deployment at the restaurant. You guys enjoy your dinner and come back with the file information."

After they had explained the situation to a startled Amy the Castle's went into their bedroom to change for their 'date night'. After Castle announced that he was going in a sport coat with his least favorite tie Kate walked into her closet and stopped. There was no way she was going to let 'Katarina' wear one of 'Kate's' dresses. After several minutes she settled on 'Beckett-ware'. If the business suit look was good enough for Friday night date night when they were dating it should be good enough for this, thought Kate.

When Kate entered the living room Castle was standing next to the window, as usual, and was looking at the traffic below. She took the time to study his transformation. She knew the contacts had changed his eyes to a deep dark brown and the glasses added an air of respectability with just a touch of geek. The birthmark Susan had placed under his left ear broke up his jawline. The makeup they used had darkened his skin tone several shades and the silver hair with a slightly different style hair completed the transformation. Castle was there alright but you had to look real hard.

"Ready Babe?"

Castle turned and gasped when he saw the transformed Katarina. The contacts had changed her eyes to a bright piercing green. The makeup had shrunk and hollowed her checks while emphasizing her cheekbones and an unseemly birthmark near her left nostril somewhat spoiled her beautiful face. But the most striking feature was her long raven black and shiny hair.

"Well?"

"I would know the love of my life no matter what wrapper she was wearing."

"Castle… there's more isn't there?"

"Well, ah nothing."

"Castle," she warned.

"We must have been gypsies in a previous life. For a moment there I saw you in a long colorful skirt and a peasant blouse. Your long hair was held back by a colorful silk scarf and they were other scarfs tied around your waist. You were dancing to the beat of a drum and tambourine around a campfire. I couldn't wait for the dance to end, but it was …."  
"The perils of being married to an author," Kate remarked to Amy. "You liked watching me dance?"

"Very much."

"You made that up."

"No…Kate…I"

"He sounded sincere to me," added Amy.

"Yes," agreed Kate. "Thankfully he is a horrible liar and he can't act to save his life, and those are things I love about him." Kate leaned in and gave Castle a quick kiss and made a point of touching the jacket pocket were he normally stowed his baton. Castle smiled, nodded and looked at Kate's clutch purse. The purse was one of the ones she used to carry her credential and her weapon. Kate returned his gaze. They weren't expecting trouble, but why tempt fate.

Kate smiled smugly to herself after they had entered through the second set of double doors and entered 'The Fig Leaf' proper. The restaurant had invested little in atmosphere and an evening dress here would have been so out of place. Between the doors and the maître d' station was a waiting area for the 'to go' orders and the corridor to the restrooms. Behind and to the left of the maître d' station was the bar area. Planters were used to divide the rest of the cavernous area into three sections. The ceiling was unfinished and added nothing to the dining experience. The tables and chairs were functional and not particular stylish. The restaurant used butcher paper over the top of red and white checked oil cloth to cover the table tops, and the wait-staff had mastered the art of writing their name upside down and backwards with crayons. Secretly Kate wondered how the restaurant survived in Tribeca.

Castle let Kate handle the check-in with the maître d'. Her Russian accented English was strange to his ear. He noted that initially the maître d' was briefly surprised then his face took on the mask of a professional.

Dinner was unremarkable, the wine cellar was a blend of Californian and Chilean wines and they were way overpriced. Kate's lasagna confirmed Castle's mutterings about the incompetence of the chief. Despite the serious nature of the situation, when Kate put her hand in Castle's and felt the familiar gentle pressure she felt that there was nothing they couldn't accomplish. As dinner was winding to a close and they were waiting for their check, Castle was becoming increasingly more nervous. A little bit of nerves would be normal, but Castle was on the verge of becoming obvious. Grabbing Castle's hand again she caught his eye and in her Russian accented voice she asked, "Tell me about my dance."

Castle looked shocked and then briefly nodded, he recognized what Kate was doing. Leaning close he whispered, "It was beautiful. You were beautiful. I mean the dance was sensual, suggestive, and seductive without being slutty. I didn't want it to end, but I couldn't wait for it to end because I wanted to …," he broke off when the waiter arrived with the bill. Kate transferred the money while Castle looked at the bill. After placing one of Arisu's credit cards in the folder Castle finished off his wine and waited for it to be picked up and the receipt returned. An eternity later the maître d' returned with the folder, "Your evening's entertainment should prove enlightening," he muttered softly.

Kate watched Castle pickup, quickly scan the receipt and place it in his inside jacket pocket. Only his eyes told her that the receipt contained the information they came to purchase. On their way out both of them looked at the bar when they heard Susan's distinctive laugh. Both she and Arisu were at the bar and surrounded by male admirers. The laugh was for their benefit, telling them that they had not been noticed. Kate relaxed slightly; perhaps they could enjoy the carriage ride after all.

It only took them a couple of minutes to hail a cab and get started toward Central Park. As they entered Midtown South the driver of the cab half turned in his seat and tried to catch sight of the Castle's in the rear view mirror. "I'm agent Mills. I've got the all clear from the surveillance lead will cut out the carriage ride. I'll take you directly back to Headquarters."

Kate, who had been holding Castle's hand, squeezed it hard. Castle briefly returned the pressure. At the next red light they jumped out of the cab and headed back against the traffic, "We were looking forward to the carriage ride," exclaimed Castle as he threw two twenties on the back seat.

"Hey," yelled the agent as he jumped out of the driver's side of the cab and watched the Castles' retreating backs. 'This definitely isn't in the op,' he thought. 'Well I can't leave the cab in the middle of the street to go fetch them. And if I did that would attract the type of attention the FBI wants to avoid. I'll get out of traffic and call it in. '

As luck would have it, in the curbside lane five cars back was the familiar shape of a police cruiser. "Guys," said Kate after she had extracted her badge from her purse and displaying it to the officer on the passenger side of the vehicle. "I'm Detective Beckett and this is my partner Mr. Castle. We're operating undercover. We just purchased some information and got picked up by that cab. Now he's trying to take us to a place we don't want to go. He's armed. Could you find out what his story is without breaking our cover?"

"Yeah like we left, because we saw his gun and got scared," offered Castle.

"Sure thing Sergeant," side the passenger side officer.  
"Do I know you Officer Travis," asked Kate?

"No reason you should, but I recognize one of my favorite authors and his Detective Sergeant wife," he continued. "Great disguises by the way."

"Thanks," said Beckett as they got back on the sidewalk and walked away from the cab and the cruiser, "Plan B, another cab to the Theater District?"

"Nope, Plan S, Subway," replied Castle nodding toward the entrance less than a half of a block away. "Trust much," Kate smiled? "When we jumped did you see anyone else exit their car?"

"No you?"  
"No"

"Maybe we are clean, and he's for real."

"If so someone would have told us."

"Point," agreed Kate as they headed down the stairs into the subway. "Badge time, I believe," suggested Kate as she put her badge around her neck.

"Quite," said Castle as he did the same.

"What do you mean they jumped out of the cab," shouted Max, the operation commander into the speaker phone.

"I mean I identified myself, told them that they were clean and I was going to take them to Headquarters."  
"What did they say?"

"At the next red light they got out of the cab, said they were looking forward to the carriage ride. Wait it looks I got the local NYPD to deal with."

"Check back when you can," said Max as broke the connection.

"Who told Rick or Kate that the cab driver was a friendly," asked Marshal Dillon?  
"It was a late change."

"That wasn't an answer."

"I approved the change," said Kelly.

"Okay you approved it. That still isn't an answer. Now at least tell me it was someone they would recognize? No? Now tell me again who told Rick or Kate that the cab driver was a friendly," demanded the Marshal.

Into the silence the Marshal continued, "You're on an op. What's YOUR first rule?"

"Trust no one."

"Close enough and the second?"

"Don't compromise your legend."  
"And please describe the situation you just put the Castle's in."

Max looked from the Marshal back to Kelly shrugged his shoulders and turned back to the Marshal. "I asked them to trust a person they had no way to know, and if they did it most definitely would have comprised their legends."

"And want would you have done?"

"Depends, Kill him, run, play along, and as I said it depends."

"Luckily the Castles chose to exit in a believable fashion and ran," said the Marshal as he pushed away from the desk and stood up.

"Don't be so hard on Max," said Kelly "I approved the change." She shivered as the Marshal who was more than a Marshal looked her up and down.

"I expected better of you Kelly," the Marshal replied as he headed toward the door.

"Where you going?"

"To get a cup of coffee and then down to lobby to meet them. If the reception area wasn't supplied with a picture they will have a tough time getting in after hours."

Max swallowed hard and looked away, that was something else he hadn't done. "Think they will be alright?"

Kelly laughed "Kate is a credentialed NYPD Detective operating in her own city and Castle is" 'his father's son she thought. "Castle has proven resourceful beyond all imagination," except his she thought.

"Sorry about the screw-up."

"Training exercise," she replied. "Let's hope they bring back something useful."

Marshal Dillon was downstairs in the reception area of the FBI building. He had positioned his chair so that he could easily see the bank of TV monitors. He was using the time to read a technical journal on his iPad. "Their mine," he told the agents when he saw Kate and Rick's in the monitor after they had buzzed for admittance. He picked up the house phone and dialed 7111. "The birds have returned to the coupe," he said to the person who answered.

Seeing the badges the Marshal smiled. Thinking their covers had been blown, they donned another mantle, police officers. The badges gave them some extra personal space, made they practically invisible, because no one really looks at a police officer, and allowed them to observe their surroundings without suspicion. "Ah Detective Beckett and Marshal Castle, did you enjoy your game of 'Hounds and Hares?"

"Was he…"

"One of us yes," replied the Marshal.

"But we…"

"Didn't know. I know. That was a topic of considerable discussion upstairs a while back. You did the right thing so forget about it. Let's go upstairs. They're waiting to see the surprise you got in the 'Cracker Jack' box."

Almost the entire team was waiting for them in the corridor outside of the elevators. "Gimme," demand Arisu as soon as they exited the elevator. As soon as Castle had handed over the receipt Susan hustled them back into the elevator. After she had punched the button for the floor with the gym and showers, she turned to them and said," You guys will feel better once you wash that stuff off and revert back to being you. I know I always do."

"Sooo," asked Castle with a straight face, "Did you and Arisu give out any numbers?"

"I don't know about Arisu but I gave numbers to two different 'gentlemen'. One number was to a taxidermist, believe me he was some kind of animal. The other number was to Martha's school. Perhaps she can teach him some manners."

"Taxidermist - he's some kind of animal" chuckled Kate. Her chuckle soon became a full-fledged laugh and soon she was joined by Rick and Susan. The tension from tonight's operation was broken and already behind them.

Kate felt a little yucky after her shower. She never did like putting on the same clothes after the shower that she wore before the shower. When she got home she would take another shower, maybe this time she would have some company. When Kate entered the 'normal' Team room she saw Castle setting with his back to the door and taking to their cab driver. Thoughtful as always, he had a bottle of water waiting for her. " …and hopefully this is my wife Kate." He said when he felt her hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, your disguises were pretty good. I would never have recognized you," he said as he rose and offered Kate his hand. "What a clusterfuck. I can't believe nobody told you that I was a friendly. Having the police roust me was a nice touch."

"Home field advantage," confirmed Kate. "I hope they didn't hassle you too much."  
"No more than the situation demanded," confirmed Agent Mills.

"Castle any word," asked Kate?

"No." Both of them looked at the door as it started to open. "Hey Ted," called Castle when he recognized the Team's unarmed combat expert. "Got time for a question?"

"Coffee first, question later," he smiled. "What's the question," he asked after he had returned from the break-room with a couple of cups of coffee?

"Did I over pay for dinner," asked Castle with a straight face.

"I don't know if I can answer that. Which means I already have," he admitted. "Let me tell the boss you've cleaned up. I'm sure she wants to talk to you guys. Hang loose someone will be back shortly. "

"So you guys are in the dark too," said Agent Mills.

"Yeah, they've got everything compartmented, and we aren't cleared to be inside," groused Castle.

Minutes later Marshal Dillon opened the door. His grim expression was offset somewhat by the twinkle in his eyes. "Come on you two. They've cleaned the room up for you."

The first thing Kate noticed when they enter the room was that it was full, almost crowded in fact. Kelly's full Team was present as were the Australians, Agent Hamilton and a half dozen other people she didn't recognize. Kelly nodded to them as they approached. "Sorry about the mix-up."

"We got scared so we ran," confirmed Castle.

"No real harm though," confirmed Kelly. "To answer your question, unfortunately the stuff you bought was genuine. It confirms what we already suspected as to the source."

"I assume you were able to follow the money trail," asserted Castle.

"Yes we were. Hi I'm Adam Jones from Treasury. They washed the money twice before it ended up in a numbered Swiss account. In cases like this the Swiss authorities are very co-operative. They've promised the account details within the hour."

"Our investigation has expanded considerably," added Max Wilson, the Team's electronics export, liaison to other agencies and Kelly's number two." In country. Over there the Team leader has a good handle on the three principal suspects, but he thinks there is a fourth and has asked for some help."

"Specifically on the web activities," said Arisu. "And I agree. At first blush the three principle suspects lack the skills needed to use the web this well."

"We're turning that portion of the investigation over to a cyber-team," said Kelly.

"They any good," asked Castle? "I mean if you need someone to help you kick their asses into shape…"

"Their… competent," said Arisu. "I'll keep you're offer in mind."

"I was volunteering Kate you understand."

"Castle!" exclaimed Kate.

The chuckles from the Team were good natured and genuine. They had seen the Castles on the exercise mat and they were nowhere close to them in ability in unarmed combat. Kate had the NYPD training of course, which was nowhere as extensive as theirs. No one saw them as a threat except when they had their batons. Then even Ted admitted they were dangerous.

"I thought as much" rejoined Arisu, to another round of laughter.

"Our third area of investigation is the local distribution team itself and their link to Australia," continued Max. "Which we haven't found yet."

"What can we do to help," asked Castle.

"Not much I'm afraid," said Marshal Dillon. "It's mostly records cross checking, and frankly we're better at than you are. I still plan to keep you on the payroll through the weekend just in case."

"Excuse me," said Mr. Jones. "But if there is a way to reduce consultant fees we should do it."

"How much am I paying you Deputy?"

"Two dollars a day and ammo," Castle replied in his best, but not good, Texas accent. "In coin because I don't trust paper money."

"Seriously," said Mr. Jones? When he saw the head nods he laughed "Never mind."

"Thanks for sharing," said Castle after he and Kate had exchanged looks. "Let us know if we can help." Just as Castle was about to open the door Kelly called out, "Castle, the Admiral has approved your suggestion."

Castle turned back to face the room, the smile on his face huge. "A piece of the action?"

"Probably not," laughed Kelly.

**Chapter 12 Up on the roof **

Kate was waking up. She was in the dreamscape before full awakening. 'Kate' said a familiar. 'Kate…watch…stop'. She flew through the streets of New York finally hovering over a vaguely familiar patch of concrete. A moment later Castle stepped onto the sidewalk from a store. Kate heard two loud sounds and watched Castle fall. As the blood started to flow she instinctively rushed toward him. She stooped. I've got to identify this place she thought. Looking toward the store she recognized it as a bookstore, one of Castle's favorites. They hosted his first Derrick Storm book signing and reading and ever since if they asked for him to come over he did. The store was across from a park. Their park. Where she… Where he... Where they…I'm going to stop this vowed Kate.

'Kate?' thought Kate.

'Welcome' was the eerie reply.

Kate woke with a start. She was cold and clammy. She knew Castle's social calendar, and he had an appearance at that book store scheduled for this afternoon. Unsteadily she got out of bed. Her resolving strengthening with each step she took toward the shower. By the time she had finished dressing she had a plan, and a backup position. The backup position depended upon Castle and Kate was sure he would agree. The plan depended upon how well she could beg, but she was confident they would help. After she had finished dressing Kate went into Castle's closet. It took her a moment to find the correct garment bag. She carefully took the garment out of the bag and folded it over her arm. He had it made a couple of years ago but it still should fit. Kate took the garment and walked toward the counter-top where Castle, James and breakfast waited.

"Castle I need you to wear this today," Kate announced. She watched Castle's eyes widen and shift from her, back to the bullet-proof-vest then back to her.

"Am I picking you up at the precinct or meeting you at the theater."

Tonight was Friday night and they had decided to try to make Friday night date night again. Martha had no plans, would be home early from her school and had agreed to look after James. The 'Valencia' had a double feature of two of their favorite movies, 'Forbidden Planet' and the original version of 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' and Kate was really looking forward to the night out.

Kate smiled; it was just like Castle to try to distract the conversation. "Better make it the precinct. That way we can stow this in the trunk and you won't be tempted to cheat on your diet by sneaking into the concession stand and eating a hot dog before I show up. "Kate laughed when Castle gave her his 'who me' look. "Besides cuddling with you while you're wearing this probably wouldn't be fun for me."

"The other Kate?"

"Yeah, as you exit the book store."

"Ah, that definitely would spoil date night," joked Castle.

At the precinct Kate made a call to Tom Abbott, the long shooter for Kelly's Team. After explaining the situation he agreed to scout the area for perches "Besides," he complained. "For most of us this op has been boring and it would be nice to do some field work for a change."

Luckily Kate did not have to worry about what might happen to Castle. A runner had tripped over a body in Flushing Meadows Park and the hunt was on to find the bad guy. She briefly thought about calling Castle, remembering his work load she decided that he would just have to accept the fact that they could solve a case without him.

Tom Abbott really didn't believe Kate's story, but it was as good an excuse as any to get out of the office. He cleared it with Kelly and quickly recruited Max, Sam, Ted, and Susan to form a scouting party. He had found four serviceable perches, selected the most probable one for himself and posted Max, Sam and Ted in the others. Susan had decided to say with him.

"That's new," said Tom.

"What," asked Susan?  
"The yellow ribbon tied onto the light post outside of the book store. The long tails make it an excellent wind gauge."

"So you think?"

"Don't know. But it sure is suspicious. Snipers sometimes use flags of the nation we're operating in, or windsocks that look like flags. This way we can pretend to be patriotic as we set up our kill zone. In the United States we can do the same thing or use yellow ribbons…"

"Because when you tie the ribbon people think you are honoring a family member that is in the Service," continued Susan. "Hiding in plain sight," she muttered.

"Let's get back out of the way and see if any one shows up," suggested Tom. They didn't have long to wait. Several minutes later a man carrying a rucksack came out onto the roof and headed toward the perch. Tom grimaced. He recognized the man, Timothy J. Headman. Not so long ago TJ had been a collage and a friend now… Tom reached down, grabbed his phone and texted '1' to his Teammates he nodded to Susan who slithered further out of sight and started creating her own texts.

Tom edged forward silently. He watched TJ put down the rucksack take out the weapon's case and extract the telescopic sight, and proceed to the ledge.

"I make it ninety-two yards to the door," announced Tom, "and the wind is in your face at no more than ten knots, and the sun is not a problem. The ribbon was a nice touch by the way."

"Tommy? Is that you?" TJ turned and looked at his former friend who had moved into clear view when he spoke.

"Yeah you can leave the rest of the gun in the case TJ."  
"Sorry I got a job to do. How about I kick your ass first then kill the author later?"

"Kicking Tommy's ass is one thing, mine is whole different kettle of fish, and frankly I wish you would try. I've only got to slug one guy on this mission and I had to pull my punch because he was a friendly," said Ted who rushed forward to his friend's side.

"So you brought backup, smart."

"There are four serviceable perches," said Tom. "All four are staked out."

TJ nodded, "Yeah and this is the best. Look you guys got nothing on me. The best you got is a misdemeanor weapon's charge. I'll pay the fine out of loose change."  
"That would be true if we were handing you over to the locals," said Susan as she returned to Tom's side. "The boss is two minutes out. She was on her way over when I called. She said to treat this as an internal matter."

"What is this author, Richard Castle to you guys," pleaded TJ when he saw Max and Sam join the party.

"Today TJ he's one of us," said Max as he pulled out his 1911 and started to attach a silencer. "And you know we take care of our own."

"You can't kill me in cold blood!"

"I'm going to call it proactive self-defense, "said Max as he continued to ready his weapon.

"Marshal you may want to," Kelly stopped when she saw the look on the Marshal's face.

"Proactive self-defense, I like it. Don't let me stop you," said Marshal Dillon in a tone of voice that was not misunderstood.

"Wait I got information to trade," pleaded TJ.

Kelly, a veteran of many negotiations just waited. "If you let me walk and grant transactional immunity I'll tell you who killed the Aussie and the cab driver. That's why you're here isn't it the Aussie?"

"What about your scout?"

"She's a nobody, just a NYU student working at the Ajax. She thought we were doing research on the cab companies."

"That case is no concern of ours. Max."  
"Wait," he screamed as his hands started to move toward his jacket pocket.

"Whoa," shouted Max. "Hands"

TJ stopped, for in a blink of an eye seven guns had cleared leather and were pointing at him. In addition he could feel the laser pointer of Max's weapon focused on his forehead.

"In my jacket pocket is a cell phone. For some reason my employer wanted this Castle fellow hit on a Friday and for me to call him on this phone between four and six pm. The number is preloaded as speed dial one. He said he would double my fee."

"Well you're not going to collect."

"At least I got my upfront money."

"How do we know he's in New York?

"He may not be, but that won't stop you from finding him. When he set up the contract I think he called from Madison Square Garden, because in the back ground I heard announcer say something about 'Rick Nash' scoring his fourth goal of the season for your New York Rangers."

"Marshal you want to do the honors."

"No. I can cuff him and get the phone alright. But I would probably throw him off of the roof. The fall won't kill him, unless he lands wrong, but it would be fun and hurt like the dickens. It's not like we need him anymore."

"I'll do it," said Tom. "I know where he hides his hold-out weapons. TJ you know the drill, lean against the wall, arms up and legs spread. Don't even twitch. We already have a reason, and now we know enough to shoot and avoid the phone."

TY audibly gulped and did what he was told.

"Max"

"I know find the other phone."  
"It looks like we need to do some street theater boss," said Susan. "We can't be calling this joker on the phone without something happening on the news."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Some street theater. I have some blood packs in my kit in the car. I go into the store, badge clearly in view, drag Castle so to speak into the manager's office fit him out and take him back to his fans. I'll let it slip that there's been a death threat and I'm there to ensure that he gets back to Kate and the 12th. I take him out the front when we're ready and we fake the shooting. I'm in position to control the crowd, and his fans will have it all over the social media in record time."

"I've got blanks for my Sig Sauer and yeah if I shot from here you can hear there," said Sam McKinley the Team's Armorer.

"Transport," asked Kelly.

"When do you want it," asked the Marshal.

"When is Castle's shift over?"

"This morning Kate said three," said Tom.

Kelly looked at her watch; it was two-forty. "The ambulance needs to be in position by five after three. I'll handle the cover statement. Max!"

"I know the phone; I'm on my way to the barn now. Ted take TJ?"

"Tom you're on the street in front of the store. You manage the crowd while Susan manages Castle."

"The bus is rolling ETA twenty minutes, no lights and sirens. They'll kick those on when we tell them to. I'll head back with Ted so we can start the paperwork on this guy."

"Right I'll quarterback from here. Let Operation 'Protect the Castle' commence," proclaimed Kelly.

"Is he really a Marshal," TJ asked Ted as Ted was walking him to the car?  
"Yeah. When we operate domestically he's assigned to us act as a break. He's supposed to prevent us from trampling on the rights of innocent civilians."

"But he was going to let Max shoot me!"

"TJ, you aren't an innocent civilian."

Castle was surprised to see Stu Forrester, the owner of the book store, and Susan beside the Table.

"Folks," said Susan in a loud voice. "I'm Agent Barnes. A situation has come up and I need to speak with Mr. Castle for a couple of minutes. Don't worry I'll being our favorite author back unharmed I promise. Mr. Forrester?"

"This way Agent Barnes," said Stu.  
Once the door to the office had closed, "Jacket, sweater, shirt off. I'll explain while you strip."

When Castle got down to his vest he knocked on it. "What about this?"

Susan stopped talking, looked at it then at Castle. "Kate told me wear it. Did Kate call you?"

"Tom, I must say Mr. Castle you married a…

"An extraordinary woman, I know."

"I was going to say a woman that loves you very much, but what you said also works. If I may say you're holding up your end of the deal too."

"Thanks, but that's what partners do."

After Susan had taped on the fake blood pack, installed the triggers and Castle had buttoned up Susan began. "Okay we go back out to the front room; you do what you normally do. Around three-ten is show time. When it's time to go I'll tell you. When we leave turn to your right. When you hear the shot, trigger the blood packs and fall. We don't need a heroic death. Control your fall if you must. The best thing is to go limp. Don't react to anything until you hear a voice you recognize tell you we're clear. The means the door on the ambulance has closed and we have moved a couple of blocks. Got it? Castle?"

"Limp, and don't react. Got it."

"Where were you ?"

"Bad memory."

"Kate?"

"Yeah. I was beside her when the assassin …."

"Well this time it's pretend and she doesn't have to watch you fall."

The ambulance was a minute late getting on station but Kelly had that figured in. At three-ten she texted the GTG, 'good-to-good' message and watched the drama unfold before her. Castle walked onto the sidewalk and turned right, Susan at his side. She watched Castle fall after Sam had fired two shots. She watched as Susan heroically tried to save Castle's life as Tom managed the crowd. In about two minutes the ambulance showed up and Castle was scooped up and carted him away. Kelly looked at her watch. It was three-sixteen. The whole op, including the time it took for Castle to finish up and leave the store took less than six minutes. Kelly smiled, a job well done, but there was one more text she needed to read. Less than a minute later 'C-ok' appeared on her screen. Well done, guys she thought. Just as Kelly was about to make a phone call she received a seven character text from the Marshal. 'CNN&amp;FOX'. She laughed the first joyous laugh she had since she accepted this mission. She was tempted to call Max but decided to make the call she needed to make.

After the phone call Kelly looked down at the 'scene of the crime.' Reporters, cops, and news-mobiles had entered the area. The dark spots on the sidewalk were definitely spots left behind by the fake blood. Yep, the distract was in place, if Max can find the other phone we can bring this chapter to a happy conclusion.

So far Kate's day had been absolutely hectic and full of political infighting, so full in fact that her dream about Castle had not entered her mind. The victim in the Park had been killed execution style. A bit of digging revealed that the victim was a sometime confidential informant (CI) for one of the Major Crimes Task Force Members. That helped generate the first theory of the crime, that the CI had been discovered and executed by the people he provided information on and identified the first obstacle, Major Crimes would not co-operate at all. Which helped spark another theory of the crime, for the victim had been seen auguring with someone whose description matched a Task Force member and the Team could not help but think that the CI was intentionally set-up?

While the Boys were off doing what they could at the victim's residence, and workplace Captain Gates and Beckett had to go to the Chief 's office and appeal directly to him in order to force Inspector Johns, the Commander of Major Crimes, to co-operate with the homicide investigation. For once Kate was glad that Castle was not along, because he would be preaching 'conspiracy theory' from the highest steps, and Kate admitted to herself that he might be right. But what made matters worse was the fact that Major Crimes would not provide access to people and material until next Monday, which meant that the Team would lose two valuable days on the investigation, and worse, records could be 'sanitized' in that time frame.

Kate frowned at her cell phone "ID Blocked" was not a condition she was used to seeing. "Beckett"

"Kate, Kelly, where are you?"

"At my desk at the precinct why?"

"Good. No matter what you see on TV, read on the social medial, or otherwise hear you have my absolute word that Castle is alive, well, and unharmed. He's in transit back to Headquarters or I would put him on the phone. Kate, we caught the guy before he could pull the trigger. Due to the situation we had to do some street theater and fake Castle's shooting. He's kind of yucky from the fake blood, so if you have a change of clothes for him handy…"

"In his locker here. "

"Good. When you bring them could you also bring Captain Gates and an ADA. We made some deals with the shooter that you may not like. Anyway we can share information that will let you close the double homicide involving the Aussie and we will tell you how the attempted assassination will be handled. "

During the time of the phone call the TV's in the station house flashed their 'Breaking News' banners. On two of the TV's was an image of Castle down on the sidewalk and blood oozing from his chest area. Kelly heard Kate gasp. "Kate you okay."  
"The image on the TV," stammered Kate.

"Is real but the blood is fake. I don't know what you can see, but the woman with Rick is Susan and the man is Tom. Kate Castle is absolutely 100% okay."

"Eh right, I'll see if Captain Gates can come with me and I'll round up an ADA," replied Kate in a shaky but strengthening voice. After Kate terminated the phone call she headed toward Captain Gate's office only to be met half-way by the Captain. "Kate I'm so sorry."

"Castle's fine Sir, but we do need to talk, but I need to call Martha and Alexis first." As Beckett was explaining the history of the situation and Kelly's request for Captain Gates and an ADA the LT filled the doorway with his presence.

"Sir, Beckett," the LT. said, as laconic as always.

"LT I need a favor," said Kate reaching into her pocket for a key. "Castle is okay but needs a change of clothes. The fake blood fouled the ones his wearing. This is the key to his locker, 145, could you? I would do it but I except some people might object."

"Especially after you kicked their asses for getting in your way," he muttered. "Certainly."

"Meet us at my car," added the Captain.

"Detective Beckett there is no need for your party to sign in. You're expected. They're waiting for you in room 912. It's the conference room on the 9th floor," said one of the agents manning the reception desk. "They're treating this separately from the Task Force."

"Thanks," Beckett said as she hurried toward the elevators.

Kate got off the elevator turned right and saw the sight she most longed to see, her husband, Richard Castle standing upright and unharmed. The U.S. Marshall badge was clearly visible on the backdrop of his bullet-proof vest, which he was wearing under his jacket. His shirt and sweater from this morning not visible. "Castle," Kate breathed as she rushed into his arms. After a meaningful hug she backed off to arm's length still holding both of Castle's hands in hers. "You okay?"

"Yeah, we can talk later. They're waiting for you in the conference room. Go down this hall turn left, first door on your right. The first part of the deal you aren't going to like. The last part could be exciting. I'll be in a minute. Clean shirt?"

"In the bag," Kate said as she looked down at the bag she had dropped when she had hugged her husband. She reeled him in for a quick kiss, "Don't make me wait too long." Kate let go reluctantly and hurried to catch up with her Captain and the ADA.

When Beckett opened the door to the conference room she saw three men. "Ah Detective Beckett and Captain Gates it's nice to see you again. You must the ADA. I'm Special Agent in Charge of the New York Office Darnell Beach."

"I'm ADA Ron Davis Sir. Nice to meet you," replied the ADA.

"Some of you know Marshal Dillon," continued Mr. Beach.

"I'm ah sort of Castle's supervisor as he performs his duties as a U. S. Marshal." That comment brought a snicker from Kate and a "My condolences" from Captain Gates.

"And the guest of honor is Mr. Headman," said the FBI Agent. "He has received transactional immunity for the information he provided us and we will proved you on the double homicide, and the service he is about to perform in identifying the person who hired him to kill Marshal Castle."

"Wait you mean that Mr. Castle is a U.S. Marshal."

"A Deputy yes," said Marshal Dillon, "That would still make your act."

"A hit for hire against a Federal Law Enforcement Officer. For something like that they lock the door and throw away the key," said Mr. Headman.

"Yes, there is also another special circumstance. Need I remind you?"

"No Marshal I'll hold up my end of the deal."

"Now Mr. Headman as identified Mr. Charles Thomas as the man who killed Theodore Bishop. He also gave us Mr. Thomas's location. The FBI raided his place and currently has him in custody. He is wanted on numerous Federal charges so he won't be going any place soon. We found several Deseret Eagles at his place. We will perform ballistics on all of them. We're confident that one of them will be the murder weapon. In any event we have Mr. Headman as a witness and his statement that he hired him to kill the cab driver."

"What about the female who scouted for you," asked Beckett?

"As I told the other lady, she's a nobody, just a NYU student working as a waitress at the Ajax. She thought we were doing research on the cab companies."

"Is the Attorney General planning to prosecute," asked ADA Davis?

"Yes, primarily because the victim was a prominent foreign national and the overriding security connections."

"Understood."

"Now for the part that is really interesting, Marshal."

"It seems that Mr. Headman's client had a very interesting request."

"He said he would pay be double if I killed Castle on a Friday and called him on the phone to tell him about it."

"Ah Deputy, good," said Marshal Dillon as Castle entered the conference room. "We were just starting the good part. Altitude is not so easy to get on these phones but we're pretty sure that earlier this afternoon the phone we are interested in was in the office of one Counselor David Keystone."

"Bracken's lawyer," hushed Kate with a glance at Castle.

"Good. Now we're positive that the phone is in meeting room B at the Lincoln Correctional Facility."

"Mr. Keystone visit's him every Friday," said Kate. "I check the visitor logs," she responded defensively to the look from Captain Gates.

"Our plan is simple we enter the prison position ourselves outside the door and have Mr. Headman make the call. Once we're sure Mr. Keystone is on the other end of the line we open the door and arrest them."

"I want to be there."

"Sorry Detective this is a Marshal only party. However if you found yourself in the prisons parking lot you probably could yell crude remarks as we take them into federal custody. The Warrants are in place so we're good to go."

"Who's we," asked Kate.

"Why me and my Deputy of course," said the Marshal with a gleam in his eye. "This will be his first pose and first felony arrest, and I do want to see the look on Bracken's face when he sees Castle. Got your Miranda card son? Good lets go."

"Wait," said Kate. She stood up and extracted the handcuffs from her tactical belt. "Use these and make sure there on tight."

The Marshal and the Deputy had a little problem clearing security and gaining entry, but the Marshal's threat to arrest the Warden for obstruction and take him with them seemed to do the trick. Eventually they were in position, signaled their readiness and through the magic of modern tactical radios they got to listen in on the phone conversation.

"Yes"

"This is the contractor you hired to perform a service. The service has been completed and I would like the additional funds promised transferred to my account."

"Of course, I saw the news coverage. The funds will be transferred when the formal announcement has been made."

"Don't take too long."

"How did you do it," asked a second familiar voice? Kate stiffened in her seat in Captain Gate's cruiser. "Bracken was definitely behind this," she fumed.

"He exited the store and started to walk towards me. The wind was light and in my face . The yellow ribbon I had tied around the light post gave me everything I needed about the local conditions. I shot when he was about eighty-nine yards away. I put the second slug into him while he was lying on the ground. Both slugs were armor piercing rounds because the intel I had said he a good vest and wore it on occasion. I saw both shots hit, one just to the right of the 'V' in his sweater, the other an inch the right of that. I guarantee the mark is dead. "

"How would you like another contract?"

"Who"

"A cop"

"Cops are special circumstance. Let me guess you want this officer wasted on Friday too right?"

"I'll double your fee, and yeah a Friday hit and call would result in another double payment."

"Look cops aren't that easy. It takes a while to determine their schedule. There also normally surrounded by other cops, and the investigation will be relentless. This mark was easy. His social schedule was posted on his web-site and all I had was to find a place where I could safely oft him."

"I have patience, and I thought you said you were the best in the business and left no clues."

"I am the best. Okay, what's the soon to be dead person's name?"

"Beckett, Kate Beckett, she's a Detective out of the 12th."

"Son of a bitch," mumbled Castle as he started for the door. He was brought up short by the surprising strength of Marshal Dillon.

"This is my pose Deputy, behave, and now come along." The Marshal opened the door and walked in.

"This is a private meeting room for lawyers and their clients," said Counselor Keystone. "You can't come in here."

"I can if I have a Warrant and I do. You David A. Keystone and you William H. Bracken are under arrest for contracting to kill a US Marshal and a NYC Police Detective. Now put down the phone and put your hands up. Castle handcuff Bracken please."

"You can't be alive he killed you. I saw you lying on the sidewall with blood pouring…"

"Sorry to disappoint," replied Castle using an old but memorable line. "Please turn around. Bracken you are under arrest for contracting to kill a US Marshal and a NYC Police Detective. You have the right to…"

Kate zoned out and remembered the day where she finally got to say those words to then Senator Bracken and now today… "Ron will it hold up in court?"

"Yeah, this is a slam dunk." He chuckled, "For you Kate it's a grand slam."

Kate got out of the car and positioned herself so that she could watch the prisoners being loaded into the waiting vehicle. She turned when she heard the sound of a lot of footsteps coming towards her. It was Kelly and her heroes. "Thanks guy I…"

"Sa nada," replied Kelly quickly.

"Say boss," said Susan. "I think tonight's party night. Kate you know a good place that doesn't look to hard at Id's?"

"We followed the money trail," said Kelly. "It identified all of the members of both the source and distribution teams. The FBI is quietly picking up the locals and the on-site Team is picking up the people over there. Will closeout and turn everything over to the FBI tomorrow. "

"I was thinking of throwing an impromptu 'Back from the Dead' party at the Olde Haunt, that's Castle's place. It's mainly a cop bar with some occasional Castle groupies. If you show up you can eat and drink on my tab. Did I mention I had an 'in' with the owner?"

The laughter stopped when the prisoners came into view. Finally Castle walked over. "We still on for date night?"

"Olde Haunt," replied Kate. "A 'Back from the Dead' party and these guys solved your other case."

"Right," said Castle as he pulled Kate close. "Shall we?"

**Postscript **

Kate woke alone and to the sound of voices. She knew she was alone because one of the voices belonged to her man-child of a husband, and the other was definitely the happy baby sounds of her son. Castle had forgotten to turn off the baby monitor, again. I can forgive him, thought Kate as she scooted over to Castle's side of the bed and turned off the monitor.

She looked at Castle's pillow and shivered. Not from the cold, but from pleasure, an echo of last night's afterglow was still with her. It had been the first time she had been intimate with Castle since James's birth. Oh Castle had tried but she had held him off. Last night her fears that he wouldn't… and she couldn't just exploded into a night of fantastic sex. Not a top ten she thought but close, very close, she signed. We'll try again soon she decided. She looked at the alarm clock and groaned. Three hours before I need to get up and start my shift. It's my first shift as a 'supervisor' since James, she thought. I hope nothing… 'catastrophic' happens. On her early shifts Kate had hoped for eventless boring shifts, but this was New York City and controlled chaos was the norm. Kate had muddled through with no major mistakes and had gotten more efficient on each following shift. Now she felt up to the challenge, but still hoped that nothing catastrophic happens.

As Kate tried to sleep her mind rehashed the events of the past two weeks. We had no chance on the double homicide, she concluded. That was a pro hit, and if it wasn't for the other Kate we wouldn't have caught the assassin that allowed us to close the case and I would have lost Castle. The domestic assault was pretty straight forward, except for the anti-climactic hostage rescue. But the last case, the case involving members of the Major Crimes Task Force had been bad, not only because it involved cops, but it involved corrupt cops. The money trail did them in, concluded Kate. Kate was glad that Castle didn't shadow her on this case. In the end they had to work with Internal Affairs and Kate barely fought off the urge to shoot their pompous ass Captain between the eyes. Controlling Castle would have been difficult.

The money trail, that was the key rambled Kate's mind. It helped her Team identify the bad cops and had allowed Kelly's Team to positively identify the traitors. And speaking of the money trail Kate snorted. Apparently Mr. Keystone made a mistake and deposited the money for the hit on Castle directly into the assassin's account from the 'SuperPac Fund'. Since the fund had been used to fund a criminal enterprise it could be confiscated, and without access to that war chest Bracken and Keystone's defense options were limited. The funds had already been frozen with the final hearing scheduled for next week. A preliminary analysis showed that the fund had been used to set up the accounts in both her Dad's and Castle's name, as well as fund other dirty tricks.

For Castle, he and her Dad had finished and submitted an 'Identity Theft' Op-Ed piece, but hadn't heard back yet. The IRS audit went off without a hitch. The auditor gave Castle a choice, keep the remainder of the off-shore account and pay taxes, or dispose of it in a way that was not a direct benefit to him. Castle had chosen to give the money to charity. Half to the 'First Responders Fund' to help the families of Police, Fire Fighters, and EMTs hurt or killed in the line of duty and half to his beloved 'Library Fund.' His letter to the 'Library Fund' had been fantastic. He called libraries 'culture and educational centers that are age, sex, religion, and politically agnostic. And he hoped that today's libraries could provide the same type positive influence for future generations as they did for him when he was growing up.'

The amount of both checks was substantial. The 'Library Fund' had asked Castle to present a bigger version of the check in a public ceremony and to read the letter he had written them. Castle had agreed on the condition that they would issue James a Library card. They agreed and at the age of seven weeks, James Alexander Castle was about to become the youngest Library Card holder in the city of New York, and that was today's big activity for her guys.

Kate rolled vertical and put her feet on the floor. Since I can't get to sleep I might as well do something constructive' she thought. Instead of heading toward the shower Kate reached down and picked up her teddy. After shrugging it on she headed toward the kitchen. 'It's time I paid back Castle one of the breakfasts I owe him. Coffee first,' thought Kate. After starting the coffee Kate pulled out and made sure the waffle maker was clean. Then Kate started making the batter for waffles. She was going to use her Mom's recipe for strawberry-walnut waffles.

After the batter had been made, Kate prepared the strawberries to be used as the topping. Then Kate set the large griddle on the stove for the bacon and filled a pan with water for the poached eggs. Castle had bought an egg poacher, but Kate was old school. Next she set the counter-top for three. She was sure that combined smells of the coffee, bacon and waffles would awaken Martha and she would join them. Satisfied that her prep work was complete she topped off her coffee cup, filled Castle's and carrying both she proceeded to the man cave where, from the sounds of it, the residents were playing video games.

Kate didn't know if it was the sound of her walking, the smell of the coffee, or the sense of connection she seemed to have with her 'men' but there were two sets of eyes watching her as entered the doorway. "Coffee Babe," Kate asked as she entered the room? She moved to his side and after putting both cups down out of James's reach she reached down and gently touched Castle's cheek.

"Mrs. Castle have I ever told you how beautiful you look in the morning?"

"Not today," Kate said in a husky voice as she bent down and shared a kiss with Castle. The kiss spoke of shard love, joy, passion, and respect. When Kate broke the kiss she looked over at James and the expression on his face was priceless. "I love you too my little tiger," said Kate as she leaned in and kissed James on his forehead. "I'm afraid your parents are going to embarrass you in front of your friends. You are going to have to live with the shame that your parent's love each other and will kiss in public."

James looked uncertain. "So," said Kate. "Martha is coming home early and has agreed to look after James this evening. So are you meeting me at the precinct or at the place?" Castle looked away and a sheepish grin appeared on his face. "Don't tell me you've forgotten?"

"I won't but I have," admitted Castle. "Where are we going?"

"Our first dance lesson. Remember now?"

"Yeah," said Castle with a huge smile. "We can't let Kate and Karl have all the fun. Besides I'm waiting for a certain gypsy…"

"Castle, exclaimed Kate. "Come on breakfast is ready to be made."

"What do you want me to make," asked Castle?

"My treat, waffles, bacon and eggs," said Kate as she grabbed the coffee cups and started toward the door. Halfway to the kitchen Kate looked up and smiled at Castle. Somehow, despite carrying Jim and his seat, he had managed to put an arm around Kate's waist. 'Yep', thought Kate. 'Today is most definitely a non-catastrophe day.'


End file.
